The Oscar-winning actress, 55, was a guest on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on Wednesday, August 7, and said that during a visit to Buckingham Palace, the late Queen Elizabeth ’s husband asked her if she could help fix his DVD player.
Prince Philip at Senate House at Cambridge University, Tuesday, June 27, 2006. BLOOMBERG NEWS
The revelation came while Blanchett was playing a game the show calls, “Have! You! Met Them!?” alongside her “Borderlands” co-star Gina Gershon , 62.
When the pair were questioned if they had met Queen Elizabeth II, Gershon was not surprised to learn that the Aussie star, who played Queen Elizabeth I in the movies “Elizabeth” (1998) and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007) and Elizabeth II in a 2012 episode of “Family Guy,” had met the monarch.
“I had lunch at the palace,” Blanchett said of her meet-cute with QEII and Prince Philip, which appears to have happened in the interregnum between the actress’ two performances as the English queen’s famed ancestor and before she voiced a cartoon version of Her Majesty.
To this day, Blanchett has no idea why she was invited to Buckingham Palace.
Queen Elizabeth II attending the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland (also known as the Royal Company of Archers) Reddendo Parade in the gardens of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland on June 30, 2022. Getty Images Cate Blanchett attends “Borderlands” Special Los Angeles Fan Event at TCL Chinese Theatre on August 06, 2024 in Hollywood, California. FilmMagic
“I do not know,” the actor told Cohen, 56, when asked why she received the invite. “The head of the fire brigade was there and Helen Fielding — not the novelist — the scientist, was there.”
“I thought maybe because I played her ancestor Queen Elizabeth I, but I mean, Prince Philip just asked if I could help him with his DVD player,” Blanchett added, saying that he perhaps asked her “because I was an actress.”
Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I in the 1998 film “Elizabeth.” Courtesy Everett Collection Reprising the role she originated in the seven-time Academy Award®-nominated “Elizabeth,” Cate Blanchett returned as the famous queen in the 2007 sequel “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” Photo Credit: Laurie Sparham
“Oh, that old line,” Gershon interjected as Blanchett laughed.
“And did you help him?” Cohen followed up. “No, I did not,” Blanchett said. “I’m not technical.”
When the late-night host brought the conversation back around to whether the Queen had seen Blanchett’s work playing Elizabeth I, she replied, “It became very clear that she had not!”
The “Tár” actress also shared the story about her visit to the palace and her encounter with Prince Philip, who passed away in 2021, back in 2018 while on the UK talk program, “The Jonathan Ross Show.”
“There were 12 of us [at the lunch],” Blanchett recalled, “and I couldn’t work out for the life of me why I’d been invited.”
The late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh looking on during a tour of the Irish National Stud in Kildare, on the third day of the Queen’s four-day visit to Ireland on May 19, 2011. AFP/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth II stands on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Platinum Pageant on June 5, 2022 in London, England. Getty Images
“I sat next to [Philip], and he said, ‘I hear you’re an actor? I was given a DVD player for Christmas, and I can’t work out whether I put the green cord in or the red cord,'” Blanchett continued, doing a Prince Philip impression.
“I thought, ‘He’s invited me to lunch to tell me about his DVD player!’” she remembered with a laugh.
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