The 3 Reasons Cate Blanchett Wanted To Be In Thor: Ragnarok

Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett has discussed her three big reasons for wanting to tackle the villainous role of Hela in the Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok. Though Blanchett is typically associated with awards-nabbing prestige pictures like Carol, Blue Jasmineand Elizabeth, the actress is no stranger to big-budget popcorn blockbusters, appearing in all six Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies as well as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Blanchett tackles her most villainous role to date, the Asgardian goddess of death Hela who arrives on the scene and immediately begins living up to her name by taking away Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and proceeding to lay waste to Asgard in the most spectacular comic-book-movie fashion imaginable (think waves of fire sweeping down on everything).

The fact that she gets to symbolically castrate Thor then rain fire down on an entire kingdom were certainly good enough reasons for Blanchett to want the role of Hela, but in fact the actress had other more specific thoughts in mind when pondering whether to don Hela’s Nordic-dominatrix reindeer headdress. Blanchett shared her three main reasons for taking the role in an interview with the LA Times:

“A) It was Taika. B) It was the goddess of death. And C) There’s never been a female Marvel villain.”


That Blanchett would name Taiki Waititi at the top of her list of reasons speaks well of the director, who was a relative unknown before nabbing the gig helming the thirdThor film (a movie that will directly set upsome events in the massive Avengers: Infinity War). The third item, of course, is significant when it comes to the big picture of female representation in comic book movies, a picture that is becoming much more diverse and interesting in the wake ofWonder Woman, the biggest female-fronted comic book movie of all-time.

Given the general lack of strong villains in Marvel movies, there’s a big opportunity for Blanchett to make a huge impression playing a character who is visually striking and by all accounts gets to do some thoroughly epic things in Thor: Ragnarok.  If Blanchett knocks it out of the park as Hela, perhaps future Marvel movies will endeavor to feature more strong, villainous female characters (since they can’t seem to come up with any interesting male villains anyway, outside of Loki). It doesn’t hurt that Blanchett is one of the most talented and accomplished actresses of her generation, having snagged seven Oscar nominations with two wins under her belt.

As for that bizarre headdress, Blanchett reveals in her LA Times interview that it was actually digitally created and since she didn’t have real horns on while shooting, she was forced to call on her acting training to “sort of imagine what it was like being a reindeer.” There’s a reason Cate Blanchett has two Oscars.