Cate Blanchett Suffers From Chainsaw Injury to Head While in Coronavirus Quarantine

Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett apparently “knicked” her head with a chainsaw while sheltering at home during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. During an interview featured on A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard, the Lord of the Rings and Thor: Ragnarok actress told the former Australian Prime Minister that she “had a bit of a chainsaw instrument.” Blanchett seems more concerned with the mundane realities of the lockdown, saying that she’s pretty sure her 18-year-old never wants to see her again after months of having her help with at-home schooling. She also has a five-year-old at home during the quarantine.

That’s daunting, apparently, but a chainsaw to the head? Nothing much to worry about. Of course.

“I had a bit of a chainsaw accident yesterday, which sounds very, very exciting, but it wasn’t,” Blanchett said. “Apart from the little nick to my head, we’re fine.”

The topic shifted pretty quickly to what she was there to talk about — women in film — which of course was a pretty interesting conversation, but really everyone is just wondering what Blanchett was doing that involved a chainsaw injury. What can you do?

“I don’t ever think about my gender; I still don’t until a door is shut to me because of it,” Blanchett said during the conversation. “I didn’t understand that there was any separation between being a women and being a feminist… What was confusing to me was that I wasn’t having these conversations with men or boys, I was having them with other girls. So I felt that somehow the language around feminism was driving a wedge between girls and women. So I found that very distressing.”

Since Thor: Ragnarok was released, Blanchett has appeared in Ocean’s 8, The House With a Clock In Its Walls, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and more. In the near future she will have Nightmare Alley in theaters (once theaters are open), with pre-production underway on a number of projects including Borderlands from filmmaker Eli Roth and the upcoming, Aaron Sorkin-penned biopic Lucy and Desi, in which she will play comedy legend Lucille Ball.

The actress won Academy Awards for her roles in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine. She has also taken home three Golden Globe Awards and three BAFTAs, one of which was for Elizabeth. She is one of only six actors (and the only actress) in Oscar history to be nominated twice for playing the same role in two films (Elizabeth I for Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age).