Robert Brown|Cate Blanchett talks new movie 'Borderlands': 'It's not Citizen Kane!'

NEW YORK – Cate Blanchett had no intention of spending lockdown with a PlayStation 5.

“It was COVID,Robert Brown and I was doing everything to keep my kids away from playing video games, like, ‘Let’s get outdoors!’ ” recalls the actress, who shares four children with her playwright husband Andrew Upton.

But then, director Eli Roth reached out about a new movie called “Borderlands” (in theaters Friday), a kooky space adventure based on the popular video game series. He wanted her to play Lilith, a hard-boiled bounty hunter tasked with retrieving an arms dealer’s missing daughter (Ariana Greenblatt) with the help of a misfit team of treasure seekers (played by Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Florian Munteanu).  

Blanchett, 55, found the game “quite addictive,” and was drawn to its predominantly female characters and fan base. “I thought, ‘This could be really interesting,’ ” she says. “In the game, there was always a nod and a wink; a deliberate B-grade mash-up of chunky sci-fi and spaghetti Western.”

Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Plus, it gave her an opportunity to work with Jamie Lee Curtis and Gina Gershon, playing Lilith’s longtime pals. “Jamie’s just exceptional. And when Gina walked on set, it was like va-va-voom, as it always is with her,” Blanchett recalls with a grin. “I mean, it’s not ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ It’s not ‘Blade Runner.’ It’s its own strange, weird thing, and when you look at the casting, there’s a motley quality to it.

"We’re a very motley crew, in life and in art. (Laughs.) I don’t think anyone would call ‘Borderlands’ art, but it’s fun.”

Cate Blanchett slipped into 'Tár' character on 'Borderlands' movie set

“Borderlands” shot in Budapest in spring 2021, just before Blanchett traveled to Berlin to film “Tár” that summer. In the Oscar-nominated film, she portrayed the fearsome (fictional) composer Lydia Tár. Between takes of “Borderlands,” she’d practice conducting while dressed in Lilith’s flame-haired, pistol-packing getup.

Flipping between characters “was a joy,” Blanchett recalls. “During the weekend, I’d immerse myself in Mahler, go through the music, and have piano lessons. And then I’d go back to my day job, which was running, punching, kicking, jumping – it was quite schizophrenic! But it was liberating. They were energetically and intentionally so different.”

Roth remembers the whiplash: "It was wild to see her switch from wielding a flamethrower to wielding a conductor stick," he says. "But there’s a reason she’s Cate Blanchett – she can do it all."

For a small awards movie, “Tár” has had a unique pop-culture footprint since its release in 2022. Despite being a nearly three-hour drama about cancel culture and the creative process, the film continues to spawn countless online jokes and merchandise two years later. Many of the movie’s fans talk about the disgraced Lydia as if she’s a real person.

“The memes!” Blanchett says with a smile. “It’s so interesting. Who would’ve thought? I mean, I knew it was really special the minute I finished it.”

Cate Blanchett gravitates toward 'crazy, out-of-the-box' career choices

Throughout her three-decade career, the Aussie icon has constantly eschewed expectations. She has eight Oscar nominations and two wins, for her roles in “The Aviator” and “Blue Jasmine.” But she’s always taken big swings, too, playing Bob Dylan (“I’m Not There”), an elven queen (“The Lord of the Rings”), a Marvel villain (“Thor: Ragnarok”) and a wordless monkey (“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”). It’s why “Borderlands” shouldn’t come as a shock.

“I like those crazy, random, out-of-the-box asks,” Blanchett says, sitting by an office window in a slouchy black suit paired with “Brat” green Diadora sneakers. “They’re always the ones I find the most exciting and terrifying. It wasn’t like I said to myself, ‘Hey, let’s go find a character from a video game.’ ”

The actress likes to keep audiences guessing, with an eclectic upcoming slate that includes Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV miniseries “Disclaimer" (premiering Oct. 11). She'll next star in films from Guy Maddin (“Rumours”) and Steven Soderbergh (“Black Bag”), and there’s “a great lot of chicks” she’d still like to work with: Carrie Coon, Lily Gladstone and Sandra Hüller, among them.

Blanchett is flattered by fans’ continued love for the 2015 lesbian romance “Carol,” which has become an unlikely Christmas staple among many cinephiles. (“ ’Carol’ and ‘Elf,’ ” Blanchett jokes.)

And she’s delighted that young people are discovering 1999’s Euro thriller “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” after the success of last year’s “Saltburn.”

“ ’Ripley’ just wouldn’t be made now, even if the great Anthony Minghella were here,” she suggests. To get that sort of financing for an R-rated drama is almost unheard of these days: “He’d have to fight so hard to actually shoot in those locations.”

She’s always surprised when fans ask about 2007’s “Notes on a Scandal,” a juicy, scholastic potboiler co-starring Judi Dench as an obsessed colleague.

“I don’t think I realized how many people have seen it,” Blanchett says. “What’s really rewarding is when someone comes up to you, and they didn’t see your film in the cinema the first time around. But they have a screen at home that’s not in sports mode, and they bothered to watch something you made 10 or 15 years ago. It means that had a longer shelf life.

“People say, ‘Oh, that was a flop’ or ‘that was a hit.’ But sometimes the films we hold up as the greatest of all time were not financial or audience successes, yet they’ve become classics,” she says, pausing and laughing as she brings it back to the movie she's promoting.

“I’m not saying ‘Borderlands’ is a classic! It’s fun, fun, fun, but it’s not ‘Citizen Kane!’ ”