Cate Blanchett on Knight of Cups uncertainty

None of Cate Blanchett's co-stars knew how much they'd be in Knight of Cups due to Terrence Malick's reputation for heavily editing his films.

The director is known for leaving entire storylines and characters on the cutting room floor during the editing process. Most famously on 1998 war drama The Thin Red Line, Bill Pullman and Mickey Rourke were completely ditched from the final cut.

Due to this, Cate had no idea how much her character Nancy, the ex-wife of Christian Bale's screenwriter Rick, would end up in the final film, and she believes Terrence's unique editing process is down to his need for answers.

"If you see what Terrence Malick does with his films, he has devoted his life to looking for the answers on the set," Cate told Britain's OK! magazine. "In the Knight of Cups, none of the actors knew how much our performance was going to figure in the final film.

"Terry only knows that himself once he's finished shooting. He's searching for something and he is willing to take the risk of not knowing whether he can find it."

She also has a part in Terrence's next film Weightless, which was shot back-to-back with Knight of Cups and uses much of the same cast, plus Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara.

Christian, who stars in the Knight of Cups, previously said he only has a small role in Weightless so he expects that to be excluded from the final piece.

“With Knight of Cups I was there the whole time," he told Indiewire.com in 2014. "The other one I unfortunately wasn’t able to do everything I was meant to do, so I ended up doing like three, four days on that. Which in Terry’s world means you’re never going to see me in it.”

Knight of Cups, about Rick's search for love and himself in six different storylines, is released in the U.K. on 6 May (16). It was released in the U.S. in March (16).