FILM star Cate Blanchett has revealed she had a near miss when she injured her head with a chainsaw.

The award-winning actor downplayed the dangerous DIY incident, which happened at her £4.9 million manor in Crowborough.

The two-time Oscar winner made the admission in flippant fashion during an appearance on A Podcast Of One's Own, hosted by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and released last week.

She said: "I had a bit of a chainsaw accident yesterday which sounds very very exciting, but it wasn't.

"Apart from the little nick to my head I'm fine."

The star of The Aviator also revealed she had taken the year off to help and support her son through his A-Levels.

But, with the cancellations of exams due to the coronavirus crisis, she said she had been "left with an 18-year-old who doesn't really want to have anything to do with me", an experience the 51-year-old described as "a little bit discombobulating".

The mother of four also said she had found herself thrown into the deep end as, with the closure of schools, she was forced to become "a kindergarten teacher" to her five-year-old daughter Edith.

She said: "I have huge respect for the teaching profession, I always have. You look at countries like Finland and their educational outcomes are so great because teachers are paid the same as lawyers and doctors - it's a much-respected profession.

"I hope, out of this, that teachers’ wages will be increased and their respect will be amplified by Covid-19."