" The makeup artist were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them . "
1.In her new memoir titledRebel Rising,Rebel Wilsonrevealedthat she was only paid $3,500 for her role inBridesmaids —just enough to pay the fees for joining the SAG-AFTRA union. The actor said the low pay “didn’t matter” to her. She wrote, “The experience was everything!”
2.During an interview withGQ,Christian Balesaid he was paid “the absolute minimum they were legally allowed” for starring inAmerican Psycho. “And I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister, and that was getting repossessed.”
He continued, “So the first thing was: ‘Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money,’ because I’ve gotAmerican Psychodone, but I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer, and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them. And so that was my motivation after that. It was just: ‘I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.'”
3.Kimiko Glennhas been very outspoken about the poor compensation she and many fellow actors received fromOrange Is the New Black. During last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike, she posted aTikTok, saying, “People were bartenders still. People had their second jobs still.”
She continued, “They were internationally famous, couldn’t go outside, but had to keep their second jobs because they couldn’t afford to not. We couldn’t afford cabs to set!” OnInstagram, she explained that she earned $900 per day of shooting — netting her just $1,800 per month.
4.During an appearance on theLive at 9show,Terrence Howard revealed that he was not fairly compensated for his early roles. “I made $12,000 for doingHustle & Flow,” he said. “What Paramount did, instead of putting my name as Terrence Howard performing the songs, they put ‘performed by DJay.’ Well, they owned DJay, so guess what? The performance royalties went to Paramount.”
He also shared that he was only paid $6,000 forCrash,the 2004 film that won the Oscar for Best Picture. “The business don’t pay actors anything,” Terrence continued. “Actors are struggling.”
5.Ryan Goslingreportedlymade $1,000 per week for his role inHalf Nelson, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. Shooting took 23 days, and his compensation for the film was around $3,200.
6.Sharon Stone revealed that she wasn’t paid fairly for starring inBasic Instinct. “I didn’t get paid to doBasic Instinct,” she toldCBC. “I made a little bit of money. Michael made $14 million and has points. I made not enough money to buy my dress to go to the Oscars the next year. I was in this weird limbo where I was suddenly famous, but didn’t have any money.”
7.On Chelsea Handler’s Netflix talk show,Chelsea, Hilary Swankrevealedthat she was only paid $3,000 for starring inBoys Don’t Cry. Her performance won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Actress.
“I made $3,000. In order to have health insurance, you have to make $5,000,” she shared. “So I didn’t even know that I didn’t have health insurance until I went and tried to get a prescription filled. They said, ‘That’s $160.’ I went, ‘Um, did you try my insurance?’ They said, ‘Mmm-hmm.’ I had an Academy Award, no health insurance.”
8.According to theNew Yorker, Barkhad Abdi was paid $65,000 for his role inCaptain Phillips,which earned him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, as well as a BAFTA win. After production ended, he returned to selling cellphones in a Minneapolis mall.
“How I thought about it was, like, ‘When the movie came out, reviews either gonna be good or bad. Either way, I cannot be working here,'” he recalled. Barkhad quit that job on the day of the premiere. While promoting the movie in LA, he lived in the hotel the studio put him up in and wore loaner clothes.
9.Jamie Lee Curtis was paid $8,000 to star in the originalHalloweenmovie. During an interview withPeople, she recalled behind-the-scenes moments of the low-budget film, including shopping for her character’s clothing herself. “All the sudden, I was going to JCPenney and buying Laurie’s wardrobe with $200.”
10.According toInsider, Oprah was paid $35,000 for playing Sofia inThe Color Purple. Her performance was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
11.Jeff Daniels was paid $50,000 for his work in the ’90s comedyDumb and Dumber. In comparison, costar Jim Carrey made $7 million. Bobby Farrelly, one of the film’s writers, told theHollywood Reporter, “The studio didn’t want [Jeff], they said, ‘Please, anyone but him. Get a comedic actor.’ … They offered him 50 figuring he’ll say, ‘No, I’m not taking that,’ but he took it.”
12.Priyanka ChopratoldInsider that she once costarred in a Bollywood movie where she was paid significantly less than her male counterpart. “A producer-director said to me, ‘Well, you know how it is in these big tentpole movies with the big boys. This is the budget for the girl, and we can’t move beyond that,’ which was a measly 5% of what [the male lead] was getting.”
13.James Earl Jones was paid $7,000 to voice Darth Vader inStar Wars: A New Hope. The actor told theAmerican Film Institute, “George [Lucas] wanted, pardon the expression, a dark voice. So he hires a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters. And that’s the voice. That’s me. And I lucked out.”
14.And finally, Amanda Seyfriedtoldthe Sunday Times about the gender pay gap she experienced earlier in her career. “On one of my big-budget films, I found I was being paid 10% of what my male costar was getting, and we were pretty even in status.”
She continued, “I think people think that just because I’m easy-going and game to do things, I’ll just take as little as they offer. … It’s not about how much you get, it’s about how fair it is.” She also said that female actors “have to decide if you’re willing to walk away from something.”
