Cate Blanchett signed up for the movie adaptation of Borderlands because she gravitates towards “crazy” opportunities.

In Eli Roth’s adaptation of the video game series, the Australian actress stars as gun-toting outlaw Lilith, who leads an unlikely crew on a mission on her home planet of Pandora.

Blanchett’s casting as Lilith took fans by surprise and she explained to Empire magazine that working on such an unexpected project was part of the appeal.

“The crazy asks are usually the things I gravitate towards; the things I could never conceive of,” she said. “I think there also may have been a little Covid madness – I was spending a lot of time in the garden, using the chainsaw a little too freely. My husband (Andrew Upton) said, ‘This film could save your life.'”

Blanchett stars alongside Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ariana Greenblatt in the sci-fi action comedy, which serves as a reunion between the Oscar-winning actress and director Roth after 2018’s The House With a Clock in its Walls.

To prepare for the part, The Aviator star bought herself a PlayStation and swatted up on the Borderlands games.

“I wanted to know the limits of the game and what fans loved about the character,” she explained. “I got really absorbed in that whole world. The cosplayers. The YouTube make-up tutorials.”

Borderlands will be released in cinemas on 9 August.

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