Cate Blanchett recalls being asked by Prince Philip for help fixing DVD player

‘I did not help him, I’m not technical,’ the actress said

Cate Blanchett recalls being asked by Prince Philip for help fixing DVD player (Getty Images)

Cate Blanchett has opened up about her experience of having lunch with the late Queen Elizabeth II, and one unexpected request she received from Prince Philip.

On Wednesday August 7 the Lord of the Rings star appeared onWatch Watch Happens Live with Andy Cohen when she explained what happened when eating at Buckingham Palace. After being asked why she was invited, the actress and producer admitted she had no idea.

“I do not know. The head of the fire brigade was there and Helen Fielding – not the novelist – the scientist, was there,” she told Cohen.

“I thought maybe because I played her ancestor Queen Elizabeth I, but I mean, Prince Philip just asked if I could help him with his DVD player.”

According to Blanchett, Philip assumed she would know how to work the machine because she was an actress.

“And did you help him?” Cohen asked her. “No, I did not. I’m not technical,” Blanchett responded.

This isn’t the first time the Borderlands actress opened up about the interaction. Back in 2018 when speaking to UK talk show host Jonathan Ross, Blanchett said: “There were 12 of us, and I couldn’t work out for the life of me why I’d been invited.”

“Playing Queen Elizabeth and sitting next to her, I thought, ‘Maybe she’s seen the movie and wants to ask me about my interpretation.’”

“I sat next to [Philip] and he said, ‘I hear you’re an actor? I was given a DVD player for Christmas and I can’t work out whether I put the green cord in or the red cord.’”

She added with a laugh, “I thought, ‘He’s invited me to lunch to tell me about his DVD player!’”

At another point during Blanchett’s conversation with Cohen, he attempted to guess which acting gig of hers gave her “the biggest paycheck,” and assumed it would be Lord of the Rings.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “No one got paid anything to do that movie.”

Cohen replied wondering if maybe Blanchett “got a piece of the backend,” but she went on to deny that claim as well.

“No!” she told the show’s host. “That was way before any of that. No, nothing… I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my [elf] ears. It’s something. They fed me.”

“Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do,” she added.

The Ocean’s 8 actress appeared alongside co-star Jamie Lee Curtis on the red carpet in Hollywood on August 6 for a screening of their new movie, Borderlands, during which Curtis saved her from a wardrobe malfunction.

On the carpet Curtis stood behind Blanchett, who appeared to be having a problem with her pants during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

“Nothing is going on! You know what is going on? I got her back,” Curtis said at the time, making her co-star laugh. Blanchett told the outlet that the Freaky Friday star is known for being like a “mother” on set.

“On every single movie that Jamie makes, she is the den mother,” she said.