Cate Blanchett Reveals She Begged To Play A Part In Guillermo Del Toro's 'Pinocchio': 'I Would Do Anything'

Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett recently shared that she was so determined to star in Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" that she could have played a pencil. The actress previously worked with the Mexican filmmaker in 2021's "Nightmare Alley."

Since its release in late November, Del Tori's "Pinocchio" has amassed much praise from critics and currently sits at a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other works by the director include the recently released Netflix series "Cabinet of Curiosities" as well as the upcoming "Haunted Mansion" movie and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2."

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Blanchett recently revealed that as soon as she heard about Del Toro's "Pinocchio" adaptation, she wanted in and didn't mind playing even the most mediocre character. She revealed that she was really interested in working with the director, particularly after starring in his Oscar-nominated film, "Nightmare Alley," a year prior.

During the behind-the-scenes documentary of the animated show dubbed "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema," Del Toro revealed that Blanchett asked about a role in "Pinocchio" before they were done with "Nightmare Alley."

At the time, every role for the animated film was already occupied aside from that of Spazzatura, the monkey minion of Count Volpe, the villain played by Christoph Waltz.

"The voice of Spazzatura, which will come as a big surprise, was almost a blessing and an accident that I could not foresee," the director said per Insider. "We were shooting 'Nightmare Alley.' Cate Blanchett and I were having such a good time that she said, 'You gotta give me a part on 'Pinocchio.'"

Del Toro explained to the actress that the only available part in the movie was that of the monkey. Unfazed, Blanchett said, "'I would do anything. I would play a pencil in a movie for you.'"

While the actress probably did not foresee playing the role of the monkey sidekick of a villain, she soon became fond of Spazzatura. Del Toro revealed that after Blanchett saw a picture of the character, she thought he was her "spirit animal."

The actress admitted that while playing Spazzatura, she attempted to mimic Del Toro's laughter. Blanchett imitated the director's laugh once again and said, "I think there's something of Guillermo's laugh that's in Spazzatura."

She continued, "I think all the characters in Guillermo's movie, all of us feel that they're in the eye of Guillermo as the beholder. So I think there's probably qualities of Guillermo in all of the characters."

Blanchett's character Spazzatura, which means "garbage" in Italian, was named by his master Count Volpe. The villain can be seen being verbally and physically abusive to Spazzatura in the movie and, at one point, boasted to Pinocchio that he could do so because the monkey was 'nothing' when he found him.

Spazzatura eventually switches sides and lends his support to Pinocchio to take down Count Volpe. Gregory Mann voiced the movie's titular character, while Ewan MacGregor played Sebastian J. Cricket, and David Bradley voiced Geppetto.

Del Toro co-directed and co-wrote the script of "Pinocchio," which is the second adaptation of the original script by Carlo Collodi. The first was Disney's live-action starring Tom Hanks. Mark Gustafson directed alongside Del Toro, while Patrick McHale co-wrote the script.

While speaking to IndieWire in a recent interview, Del Toro revealed that he tried to stay away from previously released "Pinocchio" movies in order to stick to his original ideas for the film. He said that over 60 "Pinocchio" movies had been released, and to avoid creating "static," he avoided them.

"I was told recently that there are over 60 'Pinocchio' movies. I cannot testify to that. We tried to studiously avoid them. You have your own ideas and don't want to create static," Del Toro said.

"As Ginger Rogers used to say, 'I did everything Fred Astaire did, but I did it backward and in high heels,'" the Oscar winner continued. "The same thing I can say about stop-motion. We have to execute the same level of precision, realism but in miniature. We had to do multiple tests to simulate the carving of a piece of wood, and had to reproduce scuff marks and pay close attention to the coloring, staining, worn down areas."