Cate Blanchett found shooting Borderlands during the pandemic to be a “joyous escape” from reality.

The Australian actress stars alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Ariana Greenblatt in Eli Roth’s adaptation of the popular video game series.

The project isn’t something you would typically see Blanchett in, but she was itching to get back to work when filming began in Budapest, Hungary in April 2021.

“It was a chance to be physical and to be in a room with people, running around being stupid,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly. “We only had each other, so work was an absolute, joyous escape.”

She added, “It was seriously lockdown madness. It was nothing I thought would ever cross my path, something as bonkers as this.”

After signing up for the sci-fi action-comedy, in which her character Lilith leads a group of misfits on a mission, the Lords of the Rings star played the video game briefly with her sons and became fascinated by photos of Lilith cosplayers online.

“The whole idea of cosplay – how idiosyncratic it is, the way different people would riff and give their Lilith – that I found really inspiring. It was a big cut-and-paste for me in trying to put her together on screen,” she shared.

For Halloween star Curtis, she didn’t need to read the script to know she wanted to be involved; Blanchett’s name was a big draw.

She stated, “It didn’t matter to me. I went to Budapest to be in a movie with Cate Blanchett.”

Borderlands is in cinemas from 9 August.

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