Cate Blanchett Says Prince Philip Once Asked Her to “Help Him With His DVD Player” Because She’s an Actress

“I’m not technical.”

Cate Blanchett on 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen'
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Actress Cate Blanchett is opening up about a rather awkward encounter with the late Prince Philip during a previous trip to Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday, Aug. 7, the Lord of the Rings star broke the news that she once ate lunch with the Late Queen Elizabeth and, rather inexplicably, was asked by the late Prince Philip to help him with an apparently pesky DVD player.

"I had lunch at the palace,” Blanchett revealed, before admitting that she did "not know" why she was actually invited.

"The head of the fire brigade was there and Helen Fielding—not the novelist, the scientist—was there," she continued. "I thought maybe because I played her ancestor Queen Elizabeth I, but I mean..."

Blanchett then revealed that during her Buckingham Palace visit, the late Prince Philip made a rather odd request.

Cate Blanchett on 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.'

Cate Blanchett on 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.'

(Image credit: Getty Images)

"Prince Philip just asked if I could help him with his DVD player,” the actress explained. “Because I was an actress."

When host Andy Cohen asked Blanchett whether or not she actually helped the late royal with his DVD, she revealed she's not what one would consider the DVD-fixing type.

“No, I did not," she responded. "I’m not technical.”

Prince Philip was married to the late Queen Elizabeth, and passed away on April 9, 2021, at 99 years of age. The late Queen Elizabeth died on Sept. 8, 2022, at the age of 96 and after more than 70 years on the throne.

When asked if she believed the late Queen had watched the film in which Blanchett portrayed Queen Elizabeth I, the actress emphatically responded: “It became very clear that she had not!”

Prince Philip & Prince Charles

Prince Philip and then-Prince Charles, now King Charles.

(Image credit: Getty Images ¦ WPA Pool)

Blanchett played Queen Elizabeth I not once but twice, in the 1998 film Elizabeth and the 2007 film Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

"I've been lucky enough to be able to choose things that interest me,'' Blanchett said in one 2007 interview, regarding the numerous acting opportunities she enjoyed in-between the films. "A career is born of what you do with the opportunities that present themselves.''

Danielle Campoamor
Weekend Editor

Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.