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Steve-O
Jackass star reviewed the “comical” quantity of cash he was spent for doing death-defying stunts on the MTV series’ very first season in 2000.
“When it was all said and done, after taxes, I was paid less than $1,500 for the entire first season of Jackass,” the daredevil informed Playboy in June 2026. “Before the show came out, my sister kicked me out of the house. I was broke, unemployed, and homeless, and a star on this big MTV show.”
Jennifer Lawrence
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence was paid $25 million to star in Adam McKay‘s ensemble catastrophe funny Do not Look UpHer costar and fellow Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio got $30 million.
“Look, Leo generates more ticket office than I do,” Lawrence informed Vanity Fair for its’ December 2020/January 2021 concern. “I’m exceptionally lucky and delighted with my offer. In other scenarios, what I have actually seen– and I’m sure other ladies in the labor force have actually seen as well– is that it’s exceptionally unpleasant to ask about equivalent pay. And if you do concern something that appears unequal, you’re informed it’s not gender variation however they can’t inform you exactly what it is.”
Her sanguine mindset was hard-fought: When the variation in between Lawrence’s settlement which of her male costars for 2013’s American Hustle was exposed in the 2014 Sony e-mail hack, it triggered an industry-wide discussion about the gender pay space in Hollywood.
“I’m so fortunate to have my job. My problem is not money,” Lawrence informed the U.K.’s Channel 4 News in 2017. “I wasn’t upset that I only got this many millions for a movie. That’s ridiculous. I was angry about the unfairness and inequality.”
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Lance Bass
The * NSYNC alum exposed that he and his fellow bandmates JC Chasez Joey Fatone Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake didn’t make much cash throughout their years with the group.
“We had a daily: $35 a day,” he exposed on The Zach Sang Show in 2026. “Our very first check was a $10,000 check after years of No. 1 albums, sellout trips. I do not understand the number of millions they escaped of product due to the fact that product was crazy.”
“And then they lastly offered us a look for $10,000,” he remembered. “You’re like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ We need to be grateful for that, been working for totally free for 2, 3 years now.”
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Jonah Hill
Less similar to DiCaprio’s income: The $60,000 “before commissions and taxes” that Jonah Hill was spent for 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Streetwhile the titular wolf made $10 million.
“They offered me the most affordable quantity of cash possible,” Hill remembered on The Howard Stern Show in 2014. It was the possibility to appear in a Martin Scorsese film, so the Moneyball alum wished to get the offer done before anybody might alter their mind.
“I would offer my home and provide him all my cash to work for,” discussed Hill, who made his 2nd Best Supporting Actor election for his turn as a squirrelly substance-abusing stockbroker. “This isn’t what you generate income for. You do 22 Jump Street or you do other things, and you can pay your lease. I would have done anything on the planet. I would do it once again in a 2nd. This isn’t about cash. You must do things that you appreciate.”
Jenna Johnson
While there’s no prize money for catching Dancing With destinymirrorball prize, “whoever makes it to the ending, you all earn money up till then,” Jenna Johnsonwho won season 33 with partner Joey Graziadeishared. “And you do get a good perk.”
“If you win,” Johnson, who kept in mind professional agreements depend on seniority, continued. “it’s not like you get a million dollars. You’re just getting a cute trophy together.” As for those who say farewell to the ballroom early, well, as she explained, “You’re ensured till a specific quantity of weeks.”
According to numerous reportsdancer wages begin at around $1,200 to $1,600 an episode, which can increase to as much as of $100,000 per season. (ABC has actually not verified these reports.) On the other side, celebs get a beginning income of $125,000. As they cha-cha even more into the competitors, stars get extra benefits with the semifinalists and finalists earning money as much as $50,000 additional.
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Lisa Kudrow
The starlet relatively verified that the Pals cast– consisting of Jennifer Aniston Courtney CoxDavid Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc— get $20 million in residuals each year from the program re-airing, quipping to The Times in April 2026 that if she needed to think why, it’s “Because Phoebe Buffay was so excellent?”
In reality, she applauded the skills of her costars for their efficiencies.
“I felt I did OK, however Jennifer and Courteney? Remarkable,” she raved. “David and Matt? They had me chuckling so hard. And after that Matthew [Perry]– he was simply beyond all of us.”
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Joe Giudice
To hear Joe Giudice inform it, his and ex-wife Teresa Giudice‘s income for season among The Real Housewives of New Jersey was absolutely nothing to turn over. “We got paid nothing the first season,” he detailed on child Gia Giudice‘s Casual Chaos podcast in August 2025. “I’ll even say, it was like $25,000. It was ridiculous. But, whatever.”
And the ingredientses they take into that preliminary fame-making season weren’t low-cost. “I think the first year we had that big party in my great room,” the dad of 4 shown. “I think that show cost me $150,000 the first year.”
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey gladly accepted just a bit of green to star in 1985’s The Color Purple
“They were just using $35,000 to be in this movie, and it is the very best $35,000 I ever made,” the billionaire media magnate informed Essence in 2023. “It altered whatever and taught me a lot.”
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Jennifer Lopez
When she scored the function of late Tejana vocalist Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 biopic Selena Jennifer Lopez ended up being the very first Latina starlet to make $1 million for a movie.
“I was too young and didn’t understand what the hell was going on,” Lopez informed Range in 2019reviewing her breakout motion picture. “It was excellent they provided me a million dollars. I seem like everybody was making a declaration.”
And it led the way for her to make numerous millions more, though often her involvement does not cost a thing.
“I do things since I like them,” Lopez described to GQ in 2019“I didn’t make money an entire lot of cash for HustlersI did it free of charge and produced it. I rely on myself, you understand? Like Jenny From the Block— I do what I like.”
Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody didn’t do The Brutalist for the cash. Rather, he handled the function of a Hungarian designer suffering for his art in post-WWII America for $250,000 and won his 2nd Oscar for Best Actor.
“I require a studio motion picture now, due to the fact that I’ve put all of it into this,” Brody quipped to Rangedescribing the “barn that appears like a castle” he’s refurbishing in upstate New York.
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Pete Davidson
“Do you guys understand what they pay us?” Pete Davidson split to New york city publication when asked ahead of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary unique how he invested his cash when he was very first worked with at the age of 20 in 2014. “It’s like 3 grand an episode, so I believe I got supper.”
Surprisingly, the wages have actually stayed proportional for SNL beginners, with season one stars John Belushi Jane Curtin Gilda Radner Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase supposedly making $750 an episode back in 1975. Which was approximately comparable to $3,300 in 2014, according to the Consumer Price Index Inflation calculator(Though the $750 of 1975 is $4,428 in 2025.)
Kenan Thompson
While Kenan Thompson makes a lot more than $3,000 per episode of SNL now that he’s in his record 22nd season, the previous Nickelodeon star needed to begin someplace.
“That very first commercial when they paid me, it was $800,” the All That alum exposed in Demi Lovato‘s 2024 documentary Kid Star“I was 12 so that might too have actually been a million dollars.”
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Lauren Graham
It ends up Gilmore Girlsstatus as a precious rewatchable classic is actually valuable.
“There truly are no residuals on Netflix,” Lauren Grahamwho played Lorelai Gilmore for 7 seasons and after that repeated the function for 2016’s Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Lifestated on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March 2025“But I’ve been paid in love and gratitude.”
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Tommy Dorfman
Feeling not so valued, Tommy Dorfman got particular about her 13 Reasons Why income throughout the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike– which was triggered in part (as was the WGA strike) by banners like Netflix not making it a practice to pay extra settlement to cast and team when a program had actually ended up being a success.
“my earnings for the entire first season of 13 reasons why were $29,953.24 prior to agency and manager fees (20%) and taxes,” Dorfman composed on Threads July 24. “8 episodes over six months.” She continued, “i did all of the discount and had KEY ART for this program, flew big salami from NYC to SF to strive every episode, was kept for days without pay/working. i hardly received insurance coverage.”
And, Dorfman included, “within the very first 28 days of release, the program’s season 1 amassed an overall of 476 million view hours. this is why we strike.”
Dax Shepard
Without calling names or numbers, Dax Shepard informed fellow Being a parent alum Lauren Graham when she appeared on his podcast that he understood he made “amongst the most affordable of all the stars” on their NBC drama, which ran for 6 seasons.
The Armchair Expert host worried that he did not mind.
“Every task I had actually ever had in my life prior to Being a parentI made a point to discover what everybody was making,” he stated. “I ‘d constantly figure it out– either a discussion where I get it out of them or I backchannel through a representative.”
He made a point to deliberately not look for such details about his Being a parent household, which aided with delighting in the experience even when he did get an idea of where he was on the pay pyramid.
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George Clooney
“I got a dollar for composing the script,” George Clooney informed the Los Angeles Times in 2005 about the monetary strings he pulled to get his movie Excellent Night, and Good Luck made. “I needed to back my look for directing and kip down my acting wage. and I each made a dollar for doing it.”
His labor of love about CBS News reporter Edward R. Murrow speaking reality to power in the 1950s had legs, though: Making his Broadway launching, Clooney covered his months-long stint playing Murrow in a phase adjustment of the movie in June 2025. And with the play having actually earned a Broadway record (for a nonmusical) $3.3 million throughout a sneak peek week before it formally opened April 3, he made a lot more than $1.
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Christian Bale
For his cooling turn as Patrick Bateman in 2000’s American Psycho Christian Bale was paid “the outright minimum they were lawfully permitted to pay me” due to the fact that nobody in the production actually wished to employ him other than director Mary Harronthe Welsh star informed GQ in 2022
He made so little, Bale shared, that he kept in mind “being in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were making fun of me since I was earning money less than any of them.”
Emilia Clarke
No, the Video game of Thrones cast didn’t earn money $300,000 per episode, according to Emilia Clarke
“We didn’t make that much,” she told Variety in 2026. “Can you envision? I ‘d have been driving a number of Porsches!”
The starlet– who played Daenerys Targaryen for 8 seasons in between 2011 and 2019– kept in mind that the cash she made throughout the HBO program did supply her with adequate monetary security to pay off her moms and dads’ home loan.
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Jon Heder
His uncle might have been Rico, however Jon Heder validated in 2010 that he was “at first” just paid $1,000 for Napoleon Dynamite
After the profane funny ended up being a sleeper hit, he had the ability to renegotiate for a piece of the revenues, informing the New Zealand Herald“They went a bit greater.”
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Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Hounsou stated he’s “absolutely underpaid” in Hollywood regardless of his prominent list of credits, consisting of Amistad and Blood Diamond
“I’ve been in this business and making films now over two decades,” the Beninese star informed CNN’s Larry Madowo in January 2025. “And still—with two Oscar nominations and been in many big blockbuster films—and yet I’m still struggling financially to make a living.”
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Rebel Wilson
Rebel Wilson detailed in her 2024 narrative Rebel Rising that she was paid $3,500 to do Bridesmaids“a cost that I then needed to pay straight to the Screen Actors Guild to sign up with the union. Actually, I got paid absolutely nothing.”
Still, she composed, the experience was “whatever!”
And the Australian starlet’ star increased ever a-ca greater, with her charge going from the SAG minimum scale of $65,000 for 2012’s Pitch Perfect to $10 million for 2017’s Pitch Perfect 3Wilson composed that she generated $20 million overall for the threequel, Isn’t It Romantic and The Hustlehowever– truth alert– she “lost practically 50 percent to taxes, 10 percent to representatives and 5 percent” to her legal representative. Even after those responsibilities and paying her press agent, organization supervisor and assistant, Wilson “netted what to me was an outright fortune.”
Ellen Pompeo
In late 2017, Ellen Pompeo worked out a brand-new Grey’s Anatomy agreement for $575,000 per episode, a seven-figure finalizing bonus offer and 2 complete backend equity points worth an approximated $6 million to $7 million.
“I’m 48 now, so I’ve lastly gotten to the location where I’m okay requesting for what I are worthy of, which is something that comes just with age,” Pompeo informed The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “Because I’m not the most ‘pertinent’ starlet out there. I understand that’s the market understanding due to the fact that I’ve been this character for 14 years. The fact is, anyone can be excellent on a program season one and 2. Can you be excellent 14 years later on? Now, that’s a f– kin’ ability.”
Showing more just recently on how she constantly earned less than costar Patrick Dempseydespite the fact that she was the Grey in concern, Pompeo stated she didn’t resent him his cash.
She stated on a March 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy“Just being that I was the name of the program, I was worthy of the exact same which was more difficult to get. I wasn’t salted about him getting what he got. I was salted that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him and they never ever will.”
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Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis remembered earning money $2,000 a week– so $8,000 in overall– for 1978’s Halloweenher motion picture launching. “I suggest,” she informed Rotten Tomatoes in 2018,”no one made moneyanything.”
While the scream queen made 4 figures, director John Carpenter‘s buddy Nick Castle seemed like a king making $25 each day to share the function of Michael Myers (It’s Anthony Moran whose face you see when the killer’s mask comes off for a freaky 2nd, and editor Tommy Lee Wallace Logged screentime as Michael.)
“That was a lot at the time!” Castle, who participated in movie school at USC with Carpenter, informed Vanity Fair in 2018. “You need to keep in mind: My interest in doing the movie was being on set, so I might debunk the experience of filmmaking and directing. I anticipated to spend time the set for no cash. Hey, $25 per day, and all I had to do was use a rubber mask.”
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Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson made a Best Supporting Actress Oscar election for 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonhowever years later on she was still fired up by the $150,000 she accepted to be in the motion picture– after manufacturers turned down the $500,000 quote she gave the table.
When it comes to the movie’s leads Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett“You do not hear a great deal of $20 million quotes any longer, however at this time that was occurring,” Henson stated on the Ladies First With Laura Brown podcast in 2021. “And truly so– I’m not stating they should not have actually paid Cate and Brad what they was worthy of.”
She continued, “I’m bringing a specific quantity to the seat too and I felt like what I was asking at that time in my profession was reasonable, was reasonable to the ticket sales that I would contribute to this huge movie. Would not do it.” Henson was “gutted” when they used $100,000, she remembered. “When it was all stated and done I got $150,000, however I needed to swallow my pride, infant.”
Simplifying, “I understand individuals go, ‘$150,000, that’s a great deal of cash!'” Henson acknowledged. “I do not ever desire individuals to believe that I’m unappreciative since that is not me.” She determined, “Uncle Sam is going to take 50 percent of that, so now you’re left with, what? $75,000. Now before Uncle Sam takes the cash, I need to pay my group before taxes, 30 percent. As soon as Uncle Sam takes his 75, then I got another 30 that’s coming off of that 75, so I may have made $40,000?”
Cate Blanchett
While Blanchett has actually made a lot of cash for many years, it didn’t all originated from playing royal fairy Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings franchise, though it earned $2.9 billion at the around the world ticket office.
“Are you joke me? No,” she answered back on See What Happens Live in August 2024 when Andy Cohen thought LOTR was her greatest income. “No one earned money anything to do that motion picture … I imply, I essentially secured free sandwiches, and I got to keep my ears.”
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Orlando Bloom
They weren’t paid a valuable quantity, that is. Orlando Bloomwho played elven warrior Legolas, shared on The Howard Stern Show in 2023 that he made $175,000 for the entire trilogy.
Ideally he likewise got to keep his ears.
Freitas
lighthouses in different geographical places, consisting of those in Jeddah and Yanbu, highlighting their associations with the history of navigation, human memory and the relationship in between individuals and location.
