Paycheck Roles

I remember years ago an actor from General Hospital made a Psychic Friends commercial, when asked about it he said it paid for the swimming pool in his backyard.

Robert DeNiro, Fockers movies.

Nicholas Cage in everything he's done for at least the past decade. Diane Keaton too but for longer.

Helen Lawson in “Who Gives a Flying Fuck? Part 5”would definitely qualify.

I own this thread.

Betsy Palmer did Friday the 13th to buy a new car.

Halle Berry did Extant to pay off Gabriel Aubry.

Everybody on Godfather III.

No I do R5.

Jeremy Irons - Dungeons and Dragons

Hugh Grant in Wonka. Didn't he endlessly bitch and moan about being an Oompa Loompa?

Joan Crawford did Trog to pay the light bill.

JLC later said Halloween H20 became this for her.

R13 H2O is actually a good film. Thespian Michelle Williams is in it and Josh Hartnett's sexy ass. It’s the last good one before the truly awful ones came out and before the reboot where they just pretended like all those films, H20 included, never existed.

The cast of that shitty Dolittle remake a few years ago

Gene Hackman in "The Quick and the Dead." I actually love that movie and think it's underrated. I also think Gene Hackman did a really good job in it. But for some reason, I think he did it for the paycheck.

R16 Didn’t understand the assignment.

Michael Caine in Jaws 4 (among probably many others)

Eric Roberts in everything he’s done the last 20+ years

Richard Burton in The Exorcist 2

OP I love that you think Babs needed the money.

[quote] to remodel the mall.

Is this a euphemism for vaginal tightening?

R14 I like it too. JLC took issue with not being able to actually kill Michael Myers at the time because of a contractual clause preventing his death. I don’t begrudge her disliking Resurrection, though.

Wasn’t Robin Williams making a bunch of crap in the last 15 years of his life for the cash?

R22 H20 was crap just like the reboot because Jamie refused to play an accurate Laurie Strode and opted to play herself instead. She was Ophelia from “Trading Places”. She helped screw up Laurie Strode’s character as much as they screwed up Michael’s character throughout the series.

But staying on topic, she said “Prom Night” and “Terror Train” were paycheck movies.

Michael Caine in every third role he accepts. The guy is a true actor. It's a job. It's what he does.

I think most A-list actors do this because they all have such massive overheads. 20,000 sqft mansions, private jet flights, $2000 jeans, staff etc. They're probably all living hand to mouth.

Jennifer North made nudies for cash. Tony's sanitarium wasn't cheap.

Charlize Theon in “Reindeer Games”.

[quote]Barbra definitely did Meet the Fockers to get some cash to remodel the mall.

Yeah, getting to work with DeNiro and Hoffman had nothing to do with it.

Ben Affleck in “Paycheck”

De Niro did Dirty Grandpa because he loved the script and always wanted to work with Zac Efron.

Richard Burton for nearly everything post-Liz.

Any established actor in a Marvel film.

90% of all actors just like most college educated people are working in a job they aren’t necessarily passionate about but need to pay the bills. I didn’t include non college educated because they tend to have very little options.

#Capitalism.

Every A-lister doing Japanese commercials. George Clooney, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, etc.

I don’t understand the question and I refuse to answer it.

Barbra doing Meet the Fockers only for the money? Big whoop. What about The Guilt Trip?

Peter O'Toole in Thomas Kinkade's The Christmas Cottage

Marlon Brando in Superman

DL Fav Faye Dunaway in The Bye Bye Man (2017)

Robert Di Niro in everything for the last 20+ years.

Lawanda Page in "Mausoleum"

Eric Roberts in everything he did

Ellen Burstyn for that terrible Exorcist film last year, But in her defense, it was for a noble cause. She donated the $ to an actors scholarship fund or something .

Cate Blanchett in Borderlands

Mickey Rourke in everything the last 13 years.

Marlon Brando for everything after The Godfather. Don Juan DeMarco. Christ what a piece of crap.

Jen Aniston in every movie.

I’m forever thankful that Brando fucked up his finances so badly that had to do The Island of Dr. Moreau.

A most glorious trainwreck of a film.

Please. There's no need to besmirch the genius of LaWanda page. Shame on you r42.

When asked about his participation in 'JAWS : The Revenge', Michael Caine famously replied "I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."

I agree about De Niro, he had a great record but around 20 years ago he clearly thought, fuck it and agree to everything. To the point that i dont think he is much respected nowadays. Almost everyone does it, but some don’t have the talent, others choose some more prestige projects in between. Not his case.

Hugh Grant in almost every movie he has done if you believe him. But to be fair, his justifications for hating Wonka are very undertanble, apparently he was solely working with the green thing and had no idea what was coming across nor how to modulate is performance. He can be effective when he wants and is better than most even when phoning it in. His attitude has cost him some nominations.

I'm surprised Hugh agreed to do the new Bridget Jones movie since he dropped out of the last one. Probably just a cameo for some quick cash.

[quote] I’m forever thankful that Brando fucked up his finances so badly that had to do The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Tahitian islands aren't free.

Surprised no one yet has mentioned Johnny Depp. In his final movies before he imploded, he was "acting" using an earpiece that was feeding him his lines.

[quote]Mickey Rourke in everything the last 13 years.

R46 Except The Wrestler

Johnny Depp in Mortdecai

John Schuck said the only role he took for the check was the horrible Munsters reboot, as he had a kid going off to college.

[quote]I agree about De Niro, he had a great record but around 20 years ago he clearly thought, fuck it and agree to everything. To the point that i dont think he is much respected nowadays.

Uh huh.

2024 Academy Award Nominee Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role "Killers of the Flower Moon"

2013 Academy Award Nominee Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role "Silver Linings Playbook"

Denzel in 2 Guns.

He was in Silver Linings for about four minutes and no one associates that movie with him, r59. The man is completely washed up.

He just got an Oscar nomination

Bruce Willis' wife agreeing to his roles for the past 10 years.

Mickey Rooney did several for booze money.

R47 The Freshman in which he parodies his Godfather character is a great film. I don’t know why he hated it but that’s around the time he started being increasingly more bipolar.

A bag of potato chips would get an Oscar nomination if it starred in a Scorsese movie about mistreated Native Americans, r62. It doesn't mean De Niro's career is on fire.

R66 😂. Marry me.

R66, DiCaprio appeared in the same movie and didn't get a nomination

[quote]A bag of potato chips would get an Oscar nomination if it starred in a Scorsese movie about mistreated Native Americans

Gladstone's Flatbread Potato Crisps

I'd guess that about 80% (or more) of roles accepted by actors these days are mainly for the paycheck.

Jenny Slate-Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

Everything Travolta did after Grease. Especially Battlefield Earth. Zero interest in any kind of actual acting.

Genna Davis in any bone they'll toss that dog

R70 is right. It's not like good roles are falling from the sky. 83.7% of what's made to day is shit or reboot shit. It's not like the golden age of the 1940s when nearly every script was worth fighting for.

Geena Davis is a good actress who either stopped being offered good roles or just picked very bad roles. Didn't she make a movie with a mouse?

Maybe Geena did the mouse movie for her kids.

The Long Kiss Goodnight sort of ended her career. Which pains me. It's one of my not so guilty pleasures.

[quote]I'd guess that about 80% (or more) of roles accepted by actors these days are mainly for the paycheck.

Don't forget the insurance.

I hate derailing a thread and this will be the last time on this thread. Here's a list of what is considered by some to be the best movies of the 1940s. I can't even say I agree with this list or that there aren't glaring omissions but compare it to the shit released today. This is why actors have no choice but to take any shit role. OK back to the topic at hand. sorry.

David Cross admitted he did Alvin and the Chipmunks for the money

R80. That's not all he did for the money.

This was many years ago, but I vaguely remember Michael Caine saying something like "you should see the hosue I bought with the Jaws 4 money."

Bette Davis did Where Love Has Gone so she could pay for her daughter BD to have a lavish wedding.

Seeing how all of that turned out, Bette should've skipped it.

[quote]Wasn’t Robin Williams making a bunch of crap in the last 15 years of his life for the cash?

He was paying a ton of $$$ in alimony and child support. His last years were pretty sad, by all accounts.

True r26. Then you have attorneys, accountants, agents, managers, stylists etc. They all need to be paid and it ain't cheap. The overhead is very expensive.

[quote] Everything Travolta did after Grease. Especially Battlefield Earth. Zero interest in any kind of actual acting.

I don't think Travolta got offered any great roles after Saturday Night Fever, etc.

Yes, he got into Scientology, but so did Tom Cruise. I.e., you can't blame Scientology for derailing his career.

I do think that Travolta likes to live large with his airplanes, etc. Hence, he's got to pick up jobs when they're offered.

Actors are also people who work for a living. Not everything they do has to meet some artistic standard.

Fiona Shaw in "Pixels."

R82 meet R51.

Do try to keep up, dear.

Suck it r89

The Brady Bunch Movie kids revealed on a podcast that Gary Cole had never seen the original show and found it asinine.

When they met up for the sequel one of the kids said something like, “What are you doing here?” — to which Gary made a money-counting gesture.

Wounded much, R90?

Bitch.

r92 it's time to put down the gin and prepare Mother's evening colonic.

Expanding on r18s point, Eric Roberts once voiced a cat in a really strange movie called A Talking Cat. I can't imagine he was paid very much, though.

R85: Exactly. Those $20 million paychecks don’t mean they see all that money. They have to pay their agents 10%, plus everyone else on their teams their percentage, plus taxes - they’ll be lucky to see half their salary.

Also factor in the family members they support. Parents, siblings etc. Many celebrities are supporting their family members 100%.

Remember years ago when Christian Bale got arrested because he got into a screaming fight with his mother and sister because they were apparently bleeding him dry? Leeching relatives are a huge issue with wealthy and famous people. It can get very ugly.

R93 best hoist your cankles past your gunt, it’s Enema Time!

Tom Cruise... Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible 3, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One....

R97 Bale was probably nice enough to give his mom and sis credit cards, which apparently they sued with abandon. They would basically max out the credit line each month, he'd pay it off, and then the next month the same thing.

Anyone who accepted a role in Unfrosted, one of the worst things I’ve ever seen (and an Emmy nominee for Best TV movie — one of those nominations that shows that everyone in the industry is an asshole).

[quote]one of those nominations that shows that everyone in the industry is an asshole).

Or maybe it's just you R101.

After her Oscar, Faye Dunaway did some supporting roles with star billing… like playing Sinatra’s dying wife in THE FIRST DEADLY SIN.

Julia Roberts in that shitty Amazon streaming thing she did a few years ago.

I don't think Streisand did it only for the paycheck. She said in interviews at the time she wanted to get back into movies, but didn't want to direct or produce. This came along, and at first she said no. But then when she heard DeNiro and Hoffman signed on - she said 'yes' - she had always wanted to work with both actors, but the right project never surfaced.

R104: Isn't every role for her a paycheck job?

Aren't most roles for fun and/or money?

Sharon Stone - Basic Instinct 2

[quote]I agree about De Niro, he had a great record but around 20 years ago he clearly thought, fuck it and agree to everything.

In the past, de Niro has blamed large divorce settlements and a COVID downturn in his investments in the Greenwich Hotel and the Nobu Hotel chain, but the divorce settlement with Grace Hightower doesn't sound so devastating for a man whose fortune had been estimated at $500M: a $6M apartment of her choice + $1M annually. (Hightower had sought some definition of half his estimated $500M assets but the prenup was interpreted in DeNiro's favor.)

I think he is one of those men who loves to moan about how "all" of his income goes directly to exes, and that he is forced to take any offer that comes his way. He seems alternately freewheeling about spending and then pissy about it, and how everyone has a handout for his earnings.

In any case, he's done more than a few paycheck films.

I read that TriBeCa Films is what he spends his money on, at least in the past. It was supposed to have been a money pit.

Jim Carrey Reveals Why He Returned for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’: “I Need the Money”

Jim Carrey is getting candid about his reason for returning for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

The veteran actor, who has stepped back from acting and the spotlight over the past decade, revealed to the Associated Press the film’s U.K. premiere on Tuesday why he chose to reprise his role as villain Dr. Robotnik in the upcoming sequel, zooming into theaters on Dec. 20.

“I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And, you know, it’s just… I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly. Yeah,” Carrey admitted with a smile.

Following a robust acting career in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s, the Ace Ventura star has been quite selective in recent years regarding which projects he takes. He even told Access Hollywood in 2022, while promoting Sonic the Hedgehog 2, that he was planning on retiring from acting.

“I’m being fairly serious,” he said at the time. “It depends. If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink, that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road. But I’m taking a break.”

But even before talks of retirement, the Dumb and Dumber actor already had one foot out the door from Hollywood, turning his attention to other passions, such as developing his skills as a political cartoonist.

“I just didn’t want to be in the business anymore,” Carrey told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “I didn’t like what was happening, the corporations taking over and all that. And maybe it’s because I felt pulled toward a different type of creative outlet and I really liked the control of painting — of not having a committee in the way telling me what the idea must be to appeal to a four-quadrant whatever.”

In addition to Dr. Robotnik, Carrey also voices his villain’s grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The voice cast also includes Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba, James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Adam Pally and Krysten Ritter.

While they were making The Royal Tenenbaums, Ben Stiller gushed to Gene Hackman about how much he admired the latter's work in The Poseidon Adventure. To which Hackman replied, "Oh yeah. Money job."

[quote] The Freshman in which he parodies his Godfather character is a great film. I don’t know why he hated it but that’s around the time he started being increasingly more bipolar.

Agreed.

Luke McFarlane, the undisputed champion star of Hallmark Christmas movies had this all figured out a while ago.

To the snickering of many, he signed a long-term, lucrative contract with Hallmark to continue to appear and produce their film products.

I don't know what was in his head.

I surmise he weighed the prospect of a risky, durational position and climb for what passes as being "A List", with, on the other scale, long-term professional and financial stability.

He chose wisely.

I know Lifetime and Hallmark movies are considered slumming it, but I admire it that they provide paychecks to actors that want and need them, and it doesn't diminish their professionalism to take those roles.

R37, The Guilt Trip was kind of cute.

[quote] While they were making The Royal Tenenbaums, Ben Stiller gushed to Gene Hackman about how much he admired the latter's work in The Poseidon Adventure. To which Hackman replied, "Oh yeah. Money job."

The Poseidon Adventure was a money job for all concerned.

Christian Bale did a lot of moves that were below his talent.

R115/Shelley, you should have won the Oscar, but I also loved how mean and nasty Stella Stevens' character was. ("Let me go first, in case old fat ass gets stuck!")

Helen Mirren as Sarah in Winchester. Such a promising premise, turned to dreck, but she probably has a newly refurbished wing on an estate to show for it.

R39 Marlon Brando in Superman True. He was very open about it. Didnt he get, like 10 million dollars? Same with Bette Davis in the TV version of Hotel. $100,000 per episode, 10 episodes. She didn’t want to do it. She didn’t need the money, but BD did.

Demi Moore in Striptease. She was the very first actress to nab a 10 million dollar paycheck for a single motion picture role.

From what I understand, it kind of went like this:

It was a horrible script. The studio wanted Demi. They sent it to her manager. Everyone involved thought it was awful, but rather than turning it down, the agent said "She'll do it for 10 million", an unheard of amount at that time. They figured it would immediately be rejected and they'd move on, yet increase Demi's value for other (better) projects.

When the studio said, "Fine!", they suddenly felt obligated.

It was critically panned but enough of a hit which made it worthwhile.

Maggie Smith admitted that she did the Harry Potter movies because they were her 'retirement'. I assume 'Downton Abbey' paid very little. And she said, on the Graham Norton show, 'I just go where they send me'. The lady loved to work, and she always treated the material with respect, and acted spectacularly in everything she did.

R121, in that interview with Norton she didn’t seem at all respectful of Dowton. Not only she admitted never having seen it, she showed disbelief when someone else in the panel said they liked it/seen it.

Marlon Brando got a couple million for 3 days work in Superman with Chris Reeves.

Michael Caine in his speech where he won a globe, freely admitting he made a lot of crap and money. Probably the best golden globe speech ever😂.

R18: And so as recently as 2019, the actor has insisted he never watched the movie after its release. “Somebody said to me, ‘I saw that Jaws 4. It stinks,’” he told Australian television personality Andrew Denton. “I haven’t seen it, but I have seen the house it bought my mother, and it’s marvelous!”

Demi Moore got 12.5M for “Striptease,” bitch!

That is burned into my brain, yet I couldn’t tell you what I had for breakfast this morning.

You rang?

[quote]Marlon Brando got a couple million for 3 days work in Superman with Chris Reeves.

Brando made $3.7 million for 13 days work. An astonishing amount of money for a film role in the 1970s. He also got 11.75 percent of the picture’s backend.

However, filmmakers felt he was worth it because with Brando's name attached to the movie, it became easier to get loans and to get other actors to sign on.

In the mid 70s, the idea of doing a big budget superhero movie with all the latest special effects was considered very risky

[quote]in Superman with Chris Reeves.

Reeve. Singular not plural. No "S" at the end.

It was George Reeves but Christopher Reeve.

R127 Ugh Teri Polo was such a ham on Celebrity Ghost Stories. The story itself was flimsy as hell and it just seemed like she wanted attention... and the paltry paycheck.

I don't agree, r99. Oh, yes, the paychecks must have been impressive. But I suspect Tommy simply loved making those movies and being his own stuntman for the thrill.