With the world of entertainment still on pause due to Coronavirus restrictions, many famous actors suddenly have a lot of free time on their hands. This seems to have both been a benefit and a curse depending on who you’re talking to. One star that’s had mixed results is Thor: Ragnarok and Lord of the Rings‘ Cate Blanchett, who revealed on a recent podcast that she’d suffered a self-inflicted chainsaw injury to the head.
The revelation came on A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard, hosted by the former Australian Prime Minister. While chatting about what they’d been getting up to in lockdown, Blanchett casually mentioned that she had “had a bit of a chainsaw accident.”
…Say what?
She tried to play down the seriousness of the accident, adding that it: “Sounds very, very exciting, but it wasn’t. Apart from the little nick to the head, I’m fine.”
Speaking as someone with chainsaw training (I have the certificate to prove it!), I can confirm that at no point while you’re operating a chainsaw should the blade be in the vicinity of your head. In fact, it’s not unknown for people to accidentally kill themselves in this way, usually when the blade bounces back off of an unexpectedly hard substance and recoils back towards your soft, inviting and eminently chainsawable face.
Gillard warned Blanchett to watch out in the future, saying:
“Be very careful with that chainsaw. You’ve got a very famous head, I don’t think people would like to see any nicks taken out of it.”
Unfortunately, the actress wouldn’t go into precise details of what she was doing with a chainsaw during lockdown, so we’ll have to use our imaginations (I’m going with Deadites). You can expect to see Blanchett and her still intact head in a number of upcoming movies though, with the most interesting being her playing Lilith in Eli Roth’s adaptation of the popular Borderlands games.
