Well, at least she got to keep the elf ears.

Cate Blanchett — who played the powerful elf Galadriel in “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” film series — was on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live!” Wednesday when she was asked by the host which one of her projects provided her with her “biggest paycheck.”

Before the Oscar winner could respond, Cohen took a guess that it was Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy.

“Are you kidding me?” Blanchett said, appearing shocked. “No, no one got paid anything to do that movie.”

Cohen then asked Blanchett if she got a “piece of the back-end.” The “Tar” star responded with: “No, that was way before any of that … no, nothing.”

She then revealed why she decided to take the role in the franchise, which premiered in 2001 and ended in 2003.

“I wanted to work with the guy who made Braindead,” the “Carol” star explained, referring to Jackson’s 1992 zombie comedy movie.

Blanchett added, “I mean, I basically got free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears.” “No, no one got paid anything,” she reiterated.

As for her biggest paycheck to date, Blanchett kept it vague — and pretty real — when she said:

Although Blanchett basically got Smaug-ed out of her earnings, the franchise ended up being one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, having grossed $2.9 billion worldwide.

And the actor wasn’t the only elf from the series who earned a measly paycheck for their time in Middle-earth. In 2019, Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas in the series, told “The Howard Stern Show,” that he was paid just $175,000 for all three movies.

“Greatest gift of my life,” Bloom said of the experience of filming the movies and what they did for his career. “You’d do it again for half the money.”

Back in 2020, Blanchett spoke to PEOPLE about her role as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly on Mrs. America, which was a much different character and project than The Lord of the Rings.

An avid feminist, the actress said that she was oftentimes criticized for her left-leaning views while growing up. But today, she is proud of how far the feminist movement has come.

“Women are actually sharing their f— ups and failures and fears, and actually kind of moving forward together and really relishing what we’re really good at,” Blanchett said at the time. “I do think that the women are really making the elbow room, not only for themselves, but for each other.”

She added, “I think it’s really important to go back and witness how that happened within a system and what the system was like and how we can all together change the system to make it better for everybody.”

Blanchett’s new film Borderlands is now in theaters.