Celeb Paycheck Confessions: How Noteworthy Cash Your Favourite Actors In reality Make
From Pete Davidson's SNL salary revelation to Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney doing passion initiatives for peanuts, here's what stars beget had to whine about their paychecks, huge and runt.
Admit it, you assume all actors are rich.
That being in movies or on TV capacity they're residing in mansions, plural, and flying on private jets. Or, no lower than, they’re now now not tense about cash.
And, to be magnificent, there are some terribly well off celebrities on the market, whether or now now not because they bag paid $20 million to be in a movie or are stars of TV's biggest sitcom. Or, as an different of relying completely on their day jobs, most likely they’ve invested well or sold a liquor firm for one billion bucks.
Extra commonly than now now not, even though, artists—even the ever-stammer ones—are correct making an strive to bag a residing and experience the fruits of their labor.
“It’s love three mountainous an episode,” Pete Davidson advised New York of his early Saturday Evening Are residing salary, when worn solid contributors beget been requested how they spent their first paychecks. “So I agree with I got dinner.” Jason Sudeikis would possibly maybe maybe well sympathize, noting, “I agree with New York rent used to be doubtlessly the largest aquire I made after writing on SNL the first year.”
After all, one person's pittance will most definitely be one other's loads. But even the richest of all of them as soon as got a paltry paycheck or two (or many) again in the day, be it an staunch pittance or comparatively runt when measured in opposition to a more generously compensated costar.
As two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett mentioned on Sight What Happens Are residing final year, women in Hollywood “don’t bag paid as extra special as you specialise in they attain.” Now not even when they play elves in a $3 billion fantasy franchise.
On the least, it's frequently captivating to hear how extra special actors blueprint, in particular when the realization is wildly off repulsive. Which, especially when it comes to a done product that appears to be like to be glamorous, it so commonly is.
So, we now beget compiled juicy salary talk straight from the celebrities themselves. Can beget to you'd prefer to hear about all kinds of paychecks—the wildly huge, surprisingly runt and in every single residing in between—take care of discovering out:
Jennifer Lawrence
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence used to be paid $25 million to star in Adam McKay’s ensemble anxiousness comedy Don’t Question Up. But her costar and fellow Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio got $30 million.
“Question, Leo brings in more box residing of enterprise than I attain,” Lawrence advised Conceitedness Comely for its’ December 2020/January 2021 location. “I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal. But in other scenarios, what I beget seen—and I’m particular other women in the group of workers beget seen to boot—is that it’s extremely miserable to rely on about equal pay. And whenever you happen to achieve quiz one thing that appears to be like unequal, you’re advised it’s now now not gender disparity but they’ll’t stammer you what exactly it is miles.”
Her sanguine attitude used to be hard-fought: When the disparity between Lawrence’s compensation and that of her male costars for 2013’s American Hustle used to be published in the 2014 Sony email hack, it ended in an industry-huge dialog regarding the gender pay gap in Hollywood.
“I'm so fortunate to beget my job. My mumble is now now not cash,” Lawrence advised the U.Good adequate.’s Channel 4 News in 2017. “I wasn't upset that I only got this many millions for a movie. That's ridiculous. I used to be infected regarding the bias and inequality.”
Jonah Hill
Much less the same to DiCaprio’s salary: The $60,000 “earlier than commissions and taxes” that Jonah Hill used to be paid for 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Avenue, whereas the titular wolf made $10 million.
“They gave me the bottom quantity of cash that you would possibly maybe maybe well judge,” Hill recalled on The Howard Stern Express in 2014. But it used to be the likelihood to appear in a Martin Scorsese movie, so the Moneyball alum desired to bag the deal performed earlier than anybody would possibly maybe maybe well alternate their mind.
“I would promote my home and affords him all my cash to work for [Scorsese],” outlined Hill, who earned his second Most efficient Supporting Actor nomination for his turn as a squirrelly substance-abusing stockbroker. “This isn't what you bag cash for. You attain 22 Soar Avenue otherwise you attain other things, and also you would possibly maybe maybe pay your rent. I would beget performed one thing else on this planet. I would attain it yet again in a second. This isn't about cash. You would possibly maybe maybe simply soundless attain things that you care about.”
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey fortunately current only a tiny bit little bit of inexperienced to star in 1985’s The Shade Crimson.
“They beget been only providing $35,000 to be on this movie, and it is the one $35,000 I ever earned,” the billionaire media magnate advised Essence in 2023. “It modified the entirety and taught me so extra special.”
Jennifer Lopez
When she scored the role of uninteresting Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic Selena, Jennifer Lopez turned the first Latina actress to blueprint $1 million for a movie.
“I used to be too younger and didn’t know what the hell used to be going on,” Lopez advised Selection in 2019, reflecting on her breakout movie. “It used to be gargantuan they equipped me 1,000,000 bucks. I essentially feel love each person used to be making a assertion.”
And it paved the fashion for her to bag hundreds of millions more, even though now and again her participation doesn’t cost a thing.
“I attain things because I love them,” Lopez outlined to GQ in 2019. “I didn't bag paid a complete bunch of cash for Hustlers. I did it without cost and produced it. I financial institution on myself, you perceive? Relish Jenny From the Block—I attain what I love.”
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody didn’t attain The Brutalist for the cash. Reasonably, he took on the role of a Hungarian architect struggling for his art in post-WWII The usa for $250,000 and won his second Oscar for Most efficient Actor.
“I need a studio movie now, because I’ve poured all of it into this,” Brody quipped to Selection, referring to the “barn that appears to be like to be love a fortress” he’s renovating in upstate New York.
Pete Davidson
“Create you guys know what they pay us?” Pete Davidson cracked to New York magazine when requested earlier than Saturday Evening Are residing's Fiftieth anniversary special how he spent his cash when he used to be first hired at the age of 20 in 2014. “It’s love three mountainous an episode, so I agree with I got dinner.”
Curiously, the salaries beget remained proportional for SNL rookies, with season one stars John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Shuffle reportedly earning $750 an episode again in 1975. Which used to be roughly the same to $3,300 in 2014, in accordance with the Particular person Label Index Inflation calculator. (Though the $750 of 1975 is $4,428 in 2025.)
Kenan Thompson
While Kenan Thompson makes a lot greater than $3,000 per episode of SNL now that he’s in his tale twenty second season, the worn Nickelodeon star had to start someplace.
“That first industrial when they paid me, it used to be $800,” the All That alum published in Demi Lovato‘s 2024 documentary Baby Star. “I used to be 12 so that will simply to boot beget been 1,000,000 bucks.”
Lauren Graham
It turns out Gilmore Ladies’ position as a preferred rewatchable traditional is literally beneficial.
“There essentially are no residuals on Netflix,” Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore for seven seasons after which reprised the role for 2016’s Gilmore Ladies: A Year in the Life, mentioned on Jimmy Kimmel Are residing in March 2025. “But I’ve been paid in like and appreciation.”
Tommy Dorfman
Feeling now now not so preferred, Tommy Dorfman got narrate about her 13 Causes Why paycheck in the end of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike—which used to be ended in in segment (as used to be the WGA strike) by streamers love Netflix now now not making it a practice to pay additional compensation to solid and crew as soon as a demonstrate had become a limiteless hit.
“my earnings for the total first season of 13 explanation why beget been $29,953.24 earlier than agency and manager costs (20%) and taxes,” Dorfman wrote on Threads July 24. “8 episodes over six months.” She endured, “i did the total promo and had KEY ART for this demonstrate, flew round outing from NYC to SF to shoot for every and every episode, used to be saved for days without pay/working. i barely qualified for insurance.”
And, Dorfman added, “right by contrivance of the first 28 days of open, the demonstrate's season 1 garnered a total of 476 million see hours. here’s why we strike.”
Dax Shepard
With out naming names or numbers, Dax Shepard advised fellow Parenthood alum Lauren Graham when she seemed on his podcast that he knew he made “among the many lowest of the total actors” on their NBC drama, which ran for six seasons.
But, the Armchair Expert host wired that he did now now not mind.
“Every job I had ever had in my existence earlier than Parenthood, I made a showcase procure out what each person used to be making,” he mentioned. “I'd frequently figure it out—either a dialog where I bag it out of them or I backchannel by contrivance of an agent.”
So he made a showcase purposely now now not gaze out such recordsdata about his Parenthood family, which helped with playing the experience even when he did bag an inkling of where he used to be on the pay pyramid.
George Clooney
“I got a dollar for writing the script,” George Clooney advised the Los Angeles Instances in 2005 regarding the financial strings he pulled to bag his movie Correct Evening, and Correct Ultimate fortune made. “I had to endorse my take a look at for directing and turn in my appearing salary.[Actorcowriterandcoproducer[ActorcowriterandcoproducerGrant Heslov]and I each and every made a buck for doing it.”
His labor of like about CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow talking reality to energy in the 1950s had legs, even though: Making his Broadway debut, Clooney is playing Murrow in a stage adaptation of the movie. And with the play having grossed a Broadway tale (for a nonmusical) $3.3 million in the end of a preview week earlier than it formally opened April 3, he’s making loads greater than $1.
Christian Bale
For his chilling turn as Patrick Bateman in 2000’s American Psycho, Christian Bale used to be paid “the absolute minimum they beget been legally allowed to pay me” because nobody in the manufacturing essentially desired to rent him other than director Mary Harron, the Welsh actor advised GQ in 2022.
He made so tiny, Bale shared, that he remembered “sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists beget been laughing at me because I used to be getting paid now now not as a lot as any of them.”
Jon Heder
His uncle would possibly maybe maybe well simply beget been Rico, but Jon Heder confirmed in 2010 that he used to be “in the starting up” only paid $1,000 for Napoleon Dynamite.
After the irreverent comedy turned a sleeper hit, he used to be ready to renegotiate for part of the earnings, telling the New Zealand Herald, “They went a tiny bit bit greater.”
Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Hounsou mentioned he’s “indubitably underpaid” in Hollywood despite his prestigious list of credit, including Amistad and Blood Diamond.
“I've been on this industry and making motion photographs now over two a protracted time,” the Beninese actor advised CNN’s Larry Madowo in January 2025. “And soundless—with two Oscar nominations and been in quite lots of huge blockbuster motion photographs—and yet I’m soundless struggling financially to bag a residing.”
Arise Wilson
Arise Wilson detailed in her 2024 memoir Arise Rising that she used to be paid $3,500 to achieve Bridesmaids, “a fee that I then had to pay on to the Display conceal conceal Actors Guild to enroll in the union. So essentially, I got paid nothing.”
Peaceable, she wrote, the experience used to be “the entirety!”
And the Australian actress’ star rose ever a-ca greater, along with her fee going from the SAG minimum scale of $65,000 for 2012’s Pitch Ultimate to $10 million for 2017’s Pitch Ultimate 3. Wilson wrote that she raked in $20 million total for the threequel, Isn’t It Romantic and The Hustle, even though—actuality alert—she “lost nearly 50 p.c to taxes, 10 p.c to agents and 5 p.c” to her attorney. But even after these obligations and paying her publicist, industry manager and assistant, Wilson “netted what to me used to be an absolute fortune.”
Ellen Pompeo
In uninteresting 2017, Ellen Pompeo negotiated a brand fresh Grey’s Anatomy contract for $575,000 per episode, a seven-figure signing bonus and two stout backend equity facets worth an estimated $6 million to $7 million.
“I’m forty eight now, so I’ve in the ruin gotten to the residing where I’m OK inquiring for what I deserve, which is one thing that comes only with age,” Pompeo advised The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Attributable to I’m now now not essentially the most ‘relevant’ actress on the market. I do know that’s the industry perception because I’ve been this character for 14 years. However the reality is, any one can even be staunch on a demonstrate season one and two. Are you able to be staunch 14 years later? Now, that’s a f–kin’ skill.”
Reflecting more now now not too prolonged ago on how she frequently made now now not as a lot as costar Patrick Dempsey, despite the indisputable reality that she used to be the Grey in quiz, Pompeo mentioned she didn’t begrudge him his cash.
But, she mentioned on a March 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy, “Honest being that I used to be the namesake of the demonstrate, I deserved the identical and that used to be more sturdy to bag. I wasn't salty about him getting what he got. I used to be salty that they didn't designate me as extra special as they valued him and so that they by no means will.”
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis recalled getting paid $2,000 every week—so $8,000 in total—for 1978’s Halloween, her movie debut. “I mean,” she advised Nasty Tomatoes in 2018, “nobody got paid, one thing else.”
Yet whereas the yowl queen earned four figures, director John Carpenter’s buddy Carve Fortress felt love a king making $25 per day to portion the role of Michael Myers. (It’s Anthony Moran whose face you gape when the killer’s veil comes off for a freaky second, and editor Tommy Lee Wallace furthermore logged screentime as Michael.)
“That used to be loads at the time!” Fortress, who attended movie college at USC with Carpenter, advised Conceitedness Comely in 2018. “You wish to undergo in mind: My passion in doing the movie used to be being on situation, so I would possibly maybe maybe well demystify the experience of filmmaking and directing. I anticipated to dangle around the location for no cash. But whats up, $25 per day, and all I had to achieve used to be build on a rubber veil.”
Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson earned a Most efficient Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for 2008’s The Outlandish Case of Benjamin Button, but years later she used to be soundless fired up by the $150,000 she current to be in the movie—after producers rejected the $500,000 quote she dropped at the table.
As for the movie’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “You don’t hear a variety of $20 million quotes anymore, but at the present that used to be going on,” Henson mentioned on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And rightfully so—I’m now now not asserting they shouldn’t beget paid Cate and Brad what they deserved.”
But, she endured, “I’m bringing a particular quantity to the seat too and I felt love what I used to be asking at that time in my occupation used to be magnificent, used to be magnificent to the ticket gross sales that I would make contributions to this huge movie. Wouldn’t attain it.” Henson used to be “gutted” when they equipped $100,000, she recalled. “When it used to be all mentioned and performed I got $150,000, but I had to swallow my pleasure, tiny one.”
Breaking it down, “I do know individuals fade, ‘$150,000, that’s a variety of cash!’” Henson acknowledged. “I don’t ever need individuals to imagine that I’m ungrateful because that’s now now not me.” But, she calculated, “Uncle Sam is going to steal 50 p.c of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now earlier than Uncle Sam takes the cash, I beget to pay my crew earlier than taxes, 30 p.c. So as soon as Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got one other 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I would possibly maybe maybe well simply beget made $40,000?”
Cate Blanchett
While Blanchett has made a variety of cash over time, it didn’t all attain from playing royal elf Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings franchise, even though it grossed $2.9 billion at the worldwide box residing of enterprise.
“Are you kidding me? No,” she retorted on Sight What Happens Are residing in August 2024 when Andy Cohen guessed LOTR used to be her biggest paycheck. “Nobody got paid one thing else to achieve that movie…I mean, I most frequently got free sandwiches, and I got to take care of my ears.”
Orlando Bloom
They weren’t paid a precious quantity, that is. Orlando Bloom, who played elven warrior Legolas, shared on The Howard Stern Express in 2023 that he made $175,000 for the total trilogy.
Confidently he furthermore got to take care of his ears.
Source credit : eonline.com
