Cate Blanchett on her role as the Goddess of Death in Thor: Ragnarok

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Although I haven't exactly been blown away by the previous two THOR movies, I've found myself getting quite excited for THOR: RAGNAROK. Everything we've seen from the Taika Waititi flick is looking cosmic and colourful, and the cast seems as though it will be the best yet. THOR RAGNAROK stars Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, and, of course, Cate Blanchett as Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death. We've been blessed with a bounty of THOR: RAGNAROK related goodies this week, including a handful of new photos and some plot details, and Entertainment Weekly sat down with Cate Blanchett to discover more about the Marvel Cinematic Universe's newest baddie.

Cate Blanchett says that at the beginning of THOR: RAGNAROK, Hela has been locked away for millennia getting "more and more cross." She'll be freed from her prison early in the film, and Blanchett says that once she's unleashed, "she ain't getting back in that box."

On what is was like working with Taika Waititi:

Well I had seen his vampire movie [What We Do in the Shadows] and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. I was trying to get my head around the collision of his sensibility as a director and what had previously existed in the Thor franchise and I thought that’s going to be interesting to say the least and I thought it could produce an interesting combustible connection because tonally his work is so different from what previously existed. Obviously they wanted to do something fresh and different, which is always exciting. He’s sort of part sumo wrestler, part showgirl, part father you always wanted to have. He’s so nimble. I keep saying the word irreverent. He takes the work seriously but he doesn’t take himself seriously. So there’s music on set the whole time. There was hilarity but he knew every single time when to focus.

On if she went back and read the comics Hela has been featured in:

Oh yes. I mean, you gotta know the history of the character. And there are so many iterations of the origin story. For any of these characters, there’s never one origin story. But yes, it was really interesting to go back. Most of the time she was masked. So that’s what I really talked to the Marvel team and Taika about was when we would chose to have her masked and when she wouldn’t be masked.

On Hela's headdress being more than just an accessory:

Yeah. She’s able to manifest weapons. Her headdress can be weapons. She can manifest weapons out of different parts of her body. I won’t tell you which — I’ll leave that hanging.

On if she'll have fight scenes in the film:

There’s a bit of wire work. I worked with the legend Zoe Bell (Grindhouse). I did as much as was humanly possible for a middle-aged mother of four [laughs]. I learned so much. All sorts of capoeira stuff. All the stunts and the fights were really interestingly choreographed. But I did train, ostensibly, so I wouldn’t injure myself.

THOR: RAGNAROK will hit theaters on November 3, 2017.