Blanchett, the actress who won the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards and received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I of England, is cast in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy as Galadriel, the beautiful queen of the Elves, who gives gifts and counsel to the Fellowship of the Ring when they come to her city in the Golden Wood of Lothlorien.
Galadriel - whose name, in translation, means "Lady of Light" - is a character of power and wisdom. "She is very mercurial," says Blanchett. "There is a sadness about her that comes from her knowledge that the age of the Elves in Middle-earth is coming to an end, but also an edge of danger to her character because she, too, is a ring-bearer and has the potential - wher she to take the One Ring - to become a force as terrible as the Dark Lord, Sauron, himself."
Within a year of graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, Blanchett was recieving critical praise for her theatrical performances in plays by David Mamet and Caryl Churchill. Blanchett made her feature film debut as a member of a strong female cast headed by Glenn Close in Paradise Road, a film about a group of women imporisoned in Sumatra by the Japanese during World War II.
Her second film, Thank God He Met Lizzie, won her the Australian Film Critics Circle award and the AFI award award for Best Supporting Actress and was followed by Oscar and Lucinda, costarring Ralph Fiennes, and her acclaimed performance in the title role of Elizabeth.
Subsequent films have included a film version of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, Pushing Tin, The Talented Mr. Ripley and A Man Who Cried. Most recently, she starred in The Gift, directed by Sam Raimi.
The invitation to play Galadriel was one that Blanchett was eager to accept. "I love the book, I wanted to work with Peter Jackson and I was interested in her part of a story that had a fantastical element to it, but which was being told in a way that was absolutely 'real'."
Since filming her scenes for The Lord Of The Rings, Blanchett has played the heroine of Charlotte Gay as well as completing Bandits, alongside Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton; Heaven, costarring Giovanni Ribisi; and The Shipping News, with Kevin Spacey.
Reflecting on the flim adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Blanchett observes: "This book has had a powerful influence on people for almost fifty years, and to have had the opportunity to work on these films has been a privilege, as if we were handing on the torch of our admiration for this book to generations to come."
+Aragorn+Arwen+Bilbo+Boromir+Celeborn+Elrond+Frodo+Gandalf+Galadriel+Gimli+Legolas+
+Merry+Pippin+Sam+Saruman+