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• Netflix's behind-the-scenes documentary for "Pinocchio" reveals how Cate Blanchett was cast as a monkey.
• Guillermo Del Toro says she asked for a role after working with him on "Nightmare Alley."
• Blanchett said she was willing to take any role, including a pencil, just to work with Del Toro.

Cate Blanchett said she would be happy playing "a pencil" in a Guillermo Del Toro movie in order to work with the director again.

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Earlier this year, fans were shocked when they learned that the Oscar-winning actress plays a monkey in Del Toro's "Pinocchio" adaptation. The film was her second movie directed by Del Toro after starring in his Oscar-nominated film "Nightmare Alley."

In "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema," a behind-the-scenes documentary about making the new film, Del Toro said that Blanchett asked to star in his "Pinocchio" while they were filming "Nightmare Alley." However, the only part left was Spazzatura, the monkey minion of the villain Count Volpe (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," Del Toro said. "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.'"

The award-winning director said before laughing: "I go, 'The only part left is a monkey.'"

The documentary then cuts to Blanchett, who says: "And I went, 'I would do anything. I would play a pencil in a movie for you.'"

Del Toro also said that Blanchett thought the monkey was her "spirit animal" after seeing a drawing of him. Blanchett also said she tried to emulate Del Toro's deep laughter when playing Spazzatura.

"I think there's something of Guillermo's laugh that's in Spazzatura," Blanchett said while imitating the director's laughter. "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."

"Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio" is available to stream on Netflix.

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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