Cate Blanchett Almost Played A Secret Second Character In The Lord Of The Rings

Cate Blanchett portrayed Galadriel, Lady of the Galadhrim, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the actress almost appeared as a second character. One that’s the exact opposite of what the ruler of Lothlórien represented.

When Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were developing the legendary LOTR saga, they were planning on including a banquet scene featuring a lot of dwarves, including a bearded dwarven lady. Apparently, Blanchett wanted to appear in that scene, but scheduling conflicts got in the way.

Now, if you’re familiar with the mythology of Middle-Earth, and Arda, in a broader sense, this is as hilarious as it gets so far as in-universe jokes are concerned. In fact, Blanchett recently touched on the subject of her involvement with the project, explaining:

“For me it was super quick. There’s not too many chicks in the Tolkien universe. I loved it so much and I did say to Peter and Fran, they were doing a banquet scene with a whole lot of dwarves. I always wanted to play the bearded lady, so I asked them, ‘Could I be your hairy wife woman when you pan across the banquet table of dwarves?’ Of course I couldn’t because the timing shifted. But it takes them forever. For me, Galadriel it was just three weeks.”

As described by Tolkien, when Eru created the universe, the Children of Ilúvatar were the two races of Elves and Men. The Vala Aulë was desperate to pass his immense knowledge, which is why he decided to create his own race; the Dwarves. Eru confronted him though and Aulë repented. He then decided to destroy his creations, but Eru stayed his hand at the last moment and bestowed the Dwarves with spirits of their own. That’s why the original Children of Ilúvatar, especially the Elves, have always looked down on Dwarves as inferior creatures.

And seeing as how in the world of The Lord of the Rings Galadriel is basically one of the greatest Elves to ever live, you can imagine how funny it is to imagine the bearer of the ring Nenya as a filthy and bearded dwarven lady as well.