Cate Blanchett reveals shock secret about Borderlands co-star Jack Black - as the new sci-fi comedy bombs at the box office

Australian born Hollywood great Cate Blanchett has revealed a surprising secret  about the filming of the new sci-fi comedy Borderlands.

The 55-year-old Oscar winner said that one of her co-stars Jack Black was a 'no show' during the movie's production.

The well-known American funnyman, 54, played the role of a robot called Claptrap in the big budget movie which is based on a popular video game. 

'He didn’t even show up,' Cate joked during an interview on U.K.'s Captial Radio network this week.

'Jack had pre-recorded [all of his dialogue]... Which I think is going to be his default setting henceforth,' she added cheekily.

The award-winner also spilled that the filmmakers did not rely on elaborate special effects while filming the scenes with Jack's character - a tiny robot which rides on a single tire, has spindly arms and a single blue 'eye'.

'We looked at the actual robot which was slightly disconcerting when people felt they had to animate the robot so they’d be poking it with a stick,' she joked.

It comes after Borderlands landed with a thud at the box office.

The public appears to be staying away in droves from much-hyped would-be blockbuster, which has copped a drubbing from critics.

Based on the video game of the same name, the Eli Roth directed sci fi action comedy cost a reputed $182million (AU) but only returned a paltry $13.3million (AU)  on more than 3,000 screens over its opening weekend in the U.S. earlier this month.

And critics have not held back in putting the boot into the film in which Cate plays a futuristic 'bounty hunter'.

On the aggregator site Metacritic the film has scored a pathetic rating of 27 out of 100, based on 34 reviews from some of America's top critics.

Meanwhile, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film achieved a score of 10 per cent based on a global survey of 145 critics.

'There are still many cinema turkeys headed our way before the year closes,' wrote one critic of the Toronto Star.

'But this sci-fi gobbler mixes inept directing, terrible writing, indifferent acting and gawdawful CGI into such stupefying boredom, it feels like nothing could top it for badness.'

David Fear of Rolling Stone did not hold back either, telling readers: 'It's not a movie for critics, as the saying goes. Nor is it suitable for consumption by most gamers, film lovers, or 99 percent of carbon-based life forms.'

Still, some critics found that Cate's performance was a bright spot in the box office dud.

'In her chameleonic career, Cate Blanchett has donned many guises,' wrote the movie trade paper Screen International.

'But never before has she had the chance to be a gun-toting, ass-kicking action star. Sadly, Borderlands is an unworthy vehicle for her swaggering performance.'

Cate, who has won two Oscars in her thirty-year career co-stars in the film alongside famed American comedian Kevin Hart and Hollywood veteran Jamie Lee Curtis.

According to Box Office Mojo, Borderlands will struggle to return its hefty budget.

The film has grossed a mere $20,912,953 globally (AU$31,035,031.38).

Meanwhile, Cate has racked up thousands of rave reviews over the last 27 years after worked tirelessly across dozens of projects in theatre, film and TV.

By the early 2000s, global audiences knew her from the blockbuster Lord of the Rings series. She later appeared in the Hobbit trilogy.

She won great praise and a best supporting Oscar for playing Hollywood great Kate Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator in 2005.

In 2013, she won her first best actress Academy Award in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine.