8 Actors Who Accepted Massive Pay Cuts in Order to Play a Role They Wanted

Apart from their talent, some of the most famous actors get paid so much because it is guaranteed that they will bring a lot of money to a production. They also bring a lot to the table and are the main marketing feature of every project. However, sometimes budgets can’t support their monetary needs and producers offer these actors much less.

Bright Side knows that sometimes even big-time actors have to lower their salaries in order to play certain roles that they really want.

1. Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson is valued at $100 million for all his work in the film industry and his other ventures. For the first Twilight installment, he received $2.5 million, and for the last film, he got a total of $25 million. If we count in the box office bonuses, he earned a cool $41 million. However, for The Batman, he received only $3 million without any bonuses simply because he was obsessed with getting this part.

2. Ryan Gosling

The actor became famous after his role in The Notebook, where he earned $1 million. However, for his next roles, he wanted to concentrate on the quality of his projects and not so much on their commercial success. That’s why he accepted only $1,000 per week for starring in Half Nelson. The movie ended up being a success for Gosling since he was nominated for an Academy Award.

3. Matthew McConaughey

In 2008, the actor was offered $15 million, plus 15% of the backend, to act in the reboot of Magnum P.I. However, he turned the role down since he wanted to reinvent his career and take more serious parts. So, a few years later, he appeared in The Dallas Buyers Club, where his salary was under $200,000. His decision turned out to be a very good one since it earned him an Academy Award.

4. Kristen Stewart

From the first Twilight film, where she made $2 million, Kristen Stewart ended up making $25 million for the last 2 movies of the series. And that is without including all the added bonuses. However, in 2012, she started filming On the Road alongside a very talented cast. Due to massive budget cuts, she accepted a lowered salary of just $200,000.

5. Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is one of the wealthiest women in Hollywood, and she has worked really hard to achieve everything she has. She once was the highest-paid talk show host, making $315 million per year for making her daily show. However, before she was in the position to ask for such a hefty salary, she accepted to receive only $35,000 for The Color Purple. That’s because she was relatively unknown then since her talk show only debuted in 1986, a year after the movie was released.

6. Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield never was a very high-paid actor, getting millions of dollars for every movie. Even for his 2 Spider-Man movies, he made a total of $1.5 million, which is way less than what Tom Holland and Tobey McGuire made. And he made it even more clear that money wasn’t a priority for him after he accepted to work for scale for Martin Scorsese’s Silence.

7. John Travolta

The actor is famous for starring in many successful movies, and after Grease, he was getting up to $20 million for every project. He received $1 million for Saturday Night Fever, but he accepted just $140,000 in order to work with Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. It turned out that working with an accomplished director on a great project was more important than money.

8. Jonah Hill

The actor earned an astounding $10 million for his role in 22 Jump Street. However, he only got $60,000 before taxes for his participation in The Wolf of Wall Street. He didn’t seem to care so much about the money but about working with Martin Scorsese. That’s why he accepted that huge pay cut when Leonardo Dicaprio was making $10 million for the same movie.

Are you amazed at how much less money these actors received in order to star or have a smaller role in their dream projects?