Actors Who Made Nothing From Blockbuster Films

Hollywood isn’t exactly an industry known for its penny-pinching, especially when it comes to the pay checks earned by big stars, but there have been a number of big name actors who took surprisingly low salaries for movies that ended up becoming huge hits.

Though he almost lost out on the role of Benjamin Braddock in the 1967 hit, The Graduate, something about Hoffman’s youthful awkwardness was endearing to director Mike Nichols, and he was cast in the film, which catapulted him to stardom. Hoffman is considered one of the finest actors of our day, but even his early promise wasn’t enough for him to earn more than $17,000 for the shoot. The figure wasn’t even enough to keep Hoffman off unemployment once filming wrapped.

Before she was a daytime talk show queen, Oprah Winfrey starred in the 1985 film, The Color Purple, based off of the Alice Walker novel of the same name. Though she had already begun to make her mark on television, she could not yet command a multi-million dollar salary and was only paid $35,000 for her Oscar nominated role as Sofia. That is just under $80,000 when adjusted for inflation. The film garnered 11 Oscar nominations and grossed over $142 million worldwide.

Early in his career, Brad Pitt was struggling to make a name for himself on the big screen, when he landed the role of small-time criminal J.D. in 1991’s road flick, Thelma & Louise, which starred Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film was a critical hit, and grossed over $45 million worldwide. Pitt, who earned a salary of $30 million when he starred in Mr. and Mrs. Smith opposite ex-wife Angelina Jolie, was only paid $6,000 for his breakout role.

Though George Clooney had been acting for years, he only began to get widespread recognition as a film actor with the release of Ocean’s Eleven in 2001. In 2005, he decided to write, direct, and star in Good Night and Good Luck, a film about newscaster Edward R. Murrow’s media war with Joseph McCarthy. Not only did Clooney earn only $1 each for directing, writing, acting in the film, he had to mortgage his own house in order to help cover production costs.

Bill Murray is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Famously elusive, he’s a big enough star to only accept multi-million dollar payouts, but would rather choose roles based on how excited he is about script and the role itself, which is how he ended up performing in Rushmore for only $9,000. Rushmore helped to establish Murray as an indie darling and launched the careers of director Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman. The independent film was a hit, and ended up grossing over $17 million.

Child-star Lindsay Lohan hasn’t had it easy for the past decade, as most of her publicity has been with regards to her messy personal life, rather than her acting career. She has tried several times to reignite her career with a series of ill-received films, including 2013’s, The Canyons. Since her fall from grace, Lohan has had trouble finding roles that pay anything close to her former salary, as such, she performed in The Canyons for only $2300, which equals roughly $100 a day for her work.

By 1999, Tom Cruise had already achieved much on-screen success with two best actor Golden Globes already under his belt, when he decided to go out on a limb and call Paul Thomas Anderson about acting in his new project, Magnolia. Though Anderson was a hot director at the time, coming off the heels of his success with Boogie Nights, Cruise was paid a salary of only $100,000, even though the film gross over $45 million worldwide and earned Cruise a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Australian actor Mel Gibson made a name for himself on the big screen in the 1990s with projects like Bravehart, which went on to win him numerous awards, including Best Director. But before his rise to fame, he acted in the 1979 action film, Mad Max, for a salary of $15,000. The indie film was made on a budget of only $500,000. Gibson’s artistic success has been eclipsed by several offensive public statements he’s made in the last decade, resulting in him being temporarily blacklisted in Hollywood.

Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank was floundering around Hollywood with bit roles here and there when she was cast as Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry in 1999. Swank is a known method actress, who completely transforms herself for each role she plays, which for Boys Don’t Cry, included living as a boy. However, she only made $3000 on the film, which wasn’t even enough to cover her health insurance, despite the physical stress she inflicted on her body.

Break-out star of the 2013 film, Captain Phillips, Barkhad Abdi, was only paid $65,000 for his highly acclaimed work as Somali pirate leader, Abduwali Muse. The film, a bio-pic about the 2009 hijacking of Maersk Alabama by pirates in the Arabian sea, starred Tom Hanks as the title character and had a $55 million budget. While the film earning $218 million, the salary paid to newcomer Abdi is the legal minimum wage for a leading role in a film according to the Screen Actors Guild.

The 2007 indie horror movie was made on a budget of $15,000 with a bare bones crew and tiny cast. Though it was eventually acquired by Paramount Pictures, which allowed for it’s commercial release, the film spent it’s first couple of years on the indie circuit. It’s cast reported being paid only $500 each for their work, though the film went on to earn $193 million at the box office, making it one of the most profitable films ever.

Seann William Scott made his mark on the Hollywood map in his second film role ever as Steve Stifler in American Pie. While he went on to star in the films’ sequels, American Pie 2 and American Wedding, for the original film, he was paid only $8000, despite it earning $235 million worldwide. Since then, he has gone on to play a variety of roles, including Bo Duke in Dukes of Hazzard with Jessica Simpson, and voicing Crash in the animated film, Ice Age.

Dave Prowse may not be a household name, nor is he the actor you think of when thinking of Darth Vader, but regardless, he is the body behind the helmet. Because of a contract stipulation, Prowse was only contracted to be paid a portion of the film’s net profit, which due to legal loopholes, don’t exist. This means that unfortunately, Prowse has yet to be paid for his work in the 1983 blockbuster film.

After a much publicized search by producer, David O’Selznick, Vivien Leigh, a relative newcomer from the British stage, was signed to play the leading role of Scarlett O’Hara. For 125 days of work in 1939, she was paid $25,000, which adjusted for inflation is about $500,000. In comparison, Clark Gable, the film’s leading man was paid $120,000 or $2 million for 71 days of work. When adjusted for inflation, Gone With The Wind is still the highest grossing film of all time.

Hattie McDaniel made history for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind as the first African American to ever win an Academy Award. Given that the film premiered in segregated Atlanta, McDaniel and the film’s other black cast members were barred from attending, which Gable only attended because McDaniel told him to. For her award-winning work, she received a salary of only $450 a week, significantly less than all of the film’s other stars.

Angelina Jolie may be one of the highest paid female actress in Hollywood, but her father had to struggle to get paid early in his career. For the 1969 film, Midnight Cowboy, he was paid only the minimum union wage as designated by the Screen Actors Guild at the time, and even reports being billed $14.73 after the film wrapped for a coffee he drank while on set. The film ultimately proved fruitful as it launched Voight’s career and subsequently grossed $11 million worldwide.

In 2015, the former California governor and Terminator actor appeared in a low budget, indie horror film alongside Abigail Breslin, for the hefty sum of nothing. That’s right. Schwarzenegger, who was paid $30 million for his pre-gubernatorial Terminator movie was so taken by the film’s script, and by graphic designer-director Henry Hobson’s beautiful storyboards that he agreed to star in the film without taking a salary. Critical reactions to the film were mixed, as zombie films have been done before, though his dramatic performance garnered praise.

Though Jeff Daniels wasn’t exactly what you’d call “unknown” in 1994, he was primarily regarded as a dramatic actor, and was therefore not the studio’s first choice to play the role of Harry in Dumb And Dumber. Because of the studio’s reluctance to cast him in a comedic role, he was only paid $50,000 for the film, whereas Jim Carrey, hot off the tails of Ace Venture: Pet Detective was paid $7 million in order to star in the film.

Two-time Academy Award winning actress Cate Blanchett has her pick when it comes to film roles. Having been featured in the Lord of the Rings films, as well as winning acclaim for her role in Elizabeth, Blanchett is also not afraid to take roles for their artistic, rather than commercial value, which is how she ended up in Woody Allen’s 2013 film, Blue Jasmine. She was paid the SAG minimum of $3000 a week for her work, which earned her her second Oscar.

Former child star and son of actress Patty Duke, Sean Astin started working in films at 13, with his debut being in Goonies. He finally shed his child star image when he appeared as Samwise Gamgee, sidekick to Elijah Woods’s Frodo. Though the film trilogy was wildly popular, and the third installment received 11 Academy Awards, Astin was paid only $250,000 to sign on to all three films. He was luckily paid some financial bonuses after the franchise’s success.

Beset by numerous mis-starts, including 3 separate directors, James Howson, an unknown British actor, was ultimately cast as Heathcliff by Andrea Arnold in the 2011 adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Howson was the first actor of color to play the role, which was historically played by the legendary Laurence Olivier. The film was critically acclaimed upon opening, and still holds a rating of 69% favorable on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s young star, Howson, was only paid $13,036 to star in the film.

While Jennifer Lawrence may be the highest paid actress in Hollywood since 2015, she didn’t start out commanding such a high salary. Her breakthrough role was in 2010’s Winter’s Bone, about a teenager in the poverty-ridden Ozark mountains that needs to save her family from eviction. The role was her second film, and though she was almost passed up for being too pretty, they had the good fortune to cast her, as she was nominated for an Oscar. Her salary for the film? $3,000 a week.

The man behind Han Solo’s lovable, but seemingly dangerous sidekick, Chewbacca, was paid just peanuts to appear in the first Star Wars film. Though the original film was such a hit that it spawned a full trilogy of films in the 80s, followed by a prequel trilogy in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and has now become a full blown franchise, but Peter Mayhew was paid only $450 a week, or a total of $5400 for 12 weeks.

Dramatic roles are not the first thing you think of when you hear the name of the late Robin Williams, but the truth is, he had a dramatic background, having briefly attended Juilliard before dropping out to pursue comedy full-time. In 1997, he won an Academy Award for his dramatic role in Good Will Hunting, but that didn’t stop him from having to take a pay cut in order to appear in the psychological thriller One Hour Photo in 2002. He was paid only $35,000 for his work.

Influenced by paranormal documentaries, The Blair Witch Project is a fictional story shot in documentary style, which popularized the idea of “found footage” films, utilizing low cost equipment for a homemade, rather than cinematic feel. The unknown star of the film, Joshua Leonard, was reportedly paid only $500 for the shoot, though his participation in the project helped him gain exposure when the film was released internationally. It’s commercial popularity earned it a gross of over $248 million.

For voicing the role of toy cowboy Woody in the 1994 Pixar classic, Toy Story, Tom Hanks reportedly only made $40,000. Fresh off an Oscar win for Philadelphia, which was followed by a second win after the 1994 release of Forrest Gump, Hanks could have asked for more money. Though his signing salary for Forrest Gump was only $30,000 more, he was also contracted to received a share of the profits, making his total earnings significantly higher than for Toy Story.

Halloween was originally a 1978 independent slasher film, which was such a commercial hit that it went on to inspire seven sequels, as well as a modern day reboot of the series starting in 2007. Its release was the debut film for actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who continued to make her name as a “scream-queen” as she appeared in many horror films following Halloween. Her salary for the original film, which ended up earning a box office total of $70 million, was only $8000.

By 2008, Mickey Rourke’s career was experiencing something of a downturn. Though he has been in the biz since the 1980s, and was even able to return to the screen after spending time as a professional boxer, he was in the market for a career boost when he took on the leading role in The Wrestler. The story of a wrestler who refuses to retire despite his age, Rourke earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the film, for which he was paid $100,000.

Ryan Gosling shot to fame when he portrayed the lovelorn Noah in Nicholas Sparks’s romance, The Notebook, opposite Rachel McAdams, though he got his start alongside superstars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club. For his performance in Half Nelson, about and inner-city teacher, he was paid only $1000 a week, and though the film was not even close to his highest grossing Hollywood role, it did earn him his first Academy Award nomination.

In his 2004 big-screen debut as awkward, Idaho based teen and title character, Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder was only paid $1000 for the whole film. He reportedly took the role as a favor to the director, Jared Hess, a friend of his from university, with whom he collaborated on several projects during their studies. The surprise indie hit went on to earn over $46 million, and Heder was luckily able to renegotiate his pay in order to receive a cut of the profits.

Patricia Arquette’s Academy Award winning role as the mother in Richard Linklater’s film Boyhood, which was filmed for a few weeks a year over the course of 12 years, was far from a financial windfall. After her Oscar nomination was announced, Arquette reported that she ended up paying more to her babysitter and her dog walker than she was paid for appearing in the movie. In order to make ends meet throughout those 12 years, she appeared in a number of television shows, which generally pay quite well.

Shia LaBoeuf got his start as child star in the Disney Channel TV show, Even Stevens, playing younger brother Louis Stevens. Though he appeared in several commercially successful films before booking Transformers, that didn’t quite give him enough clout to get paid more than $500,000 for the first installment in the blockbuster hit’s franchise. That’s just a drop in the bucket considering the first film is one of the all-time highest grossing films, with a worldwide total of $709 million.

Appearing briefly as a Russian singer in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, English actress and musician Minnie Driver was only paid $5000, despite her leading role in Circle of Friends that same year. Her appearance in the Bond film, the first starring Pierce Brosnan as the international spy, was before her Academy Award nominated work in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, so she was not quite in the position to be able to negotiate a higher salary for the film, which grossed around $350 million.

While the stars of the original Star Wars films, now known as “the legacy cast” were contracted to be paid multi-million dollar salaries for the newest additions to the franchise, the films two unknown leads were reportedly paid only between $100,000 and $300,000 to star in the films. According to contract stipulations, they will only be entitled to a percentage of the profits if the film’s gross reaches over a billion dollars, a benchmark that will be hard to reach.

Jim Carrey, known for playing utterly goofy, comedic roles, decided to take a risk on the 2008 film, Yes Man. With the number of commercially successful hits under his belt, Carrey could negotiate any salary he wanted, but he signed a contract agreeing to a whopping $0 to star in Yes Man. Of course, that doesn’t mean he got paid nothing. The savvy Carrey had a deal to receive 36.2% of the gross profits, earning him a final paycheck of $35 million.

Though the Star Wars films have become a Hollywood institution, with films that have earned some of the highest gross profits ever, Harrison Ford, who went on to star as Indiana Jones was only paid $10,000 for the first Star Wars movie.

By 2013, Matthew McConaughey was a bonafide celebrity from his work in romantic comedies, and was easily pulling in millions for such frivolous roles, but he was looking to branch out and be taken more seriously as an actor. In order to do so, he accepted a comparatively measly $200,000 to star in Dallas Buyers Club. The budget for the film was so small, that only $250 was budgeted for make-up for the entire cast. McConaughey’s risk paid off when he won the Oscar for his work.

John Travolta became a bonafide movie star in the 1970s after his appearances in Saturday Night Fever (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and Grease, released in 1977 and 1978 respectively. By the 1990s, however, his career had begun to stall, so when he was offered the role of Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 Pulp Fiction, he accepted a salary of only $150,000. His gamble paid off, as he earned another Oscar nomination, and was catapulted back into the spotlight.

In order to breakout from the shadow of his career made starring in goofy comedies, Jonah Hill was willing to accept a salary of $60,000 for his work as Donnie Azoff in The Wolf of Wall Street. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film starred Leonardo DiCaprio, who in comparison to Hill received a $10 million salary for his work. Hill has stated that he didn’t mind the disparity in earnings, as he would have done anything to be able to be in the film.

Breakout star of this summer’s action packed superhero hit, Gal Gadot was only paid $300,000 for her work in the title role of Diana Prince. She has previously appeared as Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman, in comparison with other Marvel stars who received similar paychecks for their first solo superhero movies. Wonder Woman has won critical acclaim all around, but especially for Gadot’s performance. With a box office gross of $779 million, Gal Gadot should have commanded a far higher salary.