Cate Blanchett 'nicks head' in chainsaw accident during lockdown

Cate Blanchett says she has injured her head in an accident with a chainsaw in her home during lockdown.

The actress, who is based in East Sussex, revealed her scrape while talking to former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard on the ex-PM’s podcast.

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

She didn’t reveal what she was up to at the time of her mishap with the power tool.

Gillard replied: “Be very careful with that chainsaw. You’ve got a very famous head, I don’t think people would like to see any nicks taken out of it.”

Blanchett lives with her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, and their four children – Dashiell 18; Roman, 16; Ignatius, 12 and Edith, five – in Tunbridge Wells.

After planning to take most of this year off to help her kids study, Blanchett admitted that additional home-schooling duties during lockdown had given her a new-found respect for teachers.

Her latest project – the psychological thriller Nightmare Alley, in which she will star opposite Bradley Cooper – was halted in March due to coronavirus.

Blanchett called her sudden freedom “discombobulating” but admitted it was a “high-class problem”.

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Ms Gillard, who is the chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, speaks to influential figures in business, entertainment, media, sport for her series A Podcast Of Ones Own, which strives to get more women in top roles.

Two-time Oscar-winner Blanchett was the president of the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2018 and has been ranked as one of the highest paid actresses in the world.