The pay disparity between these roles is astonishing.
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00:00All actors, of course, deserve to be compensated with a fair wage for their work, with some
00:05allowances made for any added value a given talent might bring to a project.
00:10But sometimes the gap between co-star salaries is so mind-bogglingly huge, it can raise a
00:15few eyebrows.
00:17So I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture, and here are 10 co-stars paid vastly different salaries
00:23for the same film.
00:2510.
00:26Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels – Dumb and Dumber Even accepting that Jim Carrey was categorically
00:31the star of Dumb and Dumber, Jeff Daniels not only shares near-equal screen time with
00:36him throughout the zany 90s comedy, but was a decorated dramatic actor in his own right.
00:42With two Golden Globe nominations to his name and a bevy of memorable roles in hit movies
00:46in the decade leading up to Dumb and Dumber, it was reasonable to assume that Daniels was
00:50at least paid a decent rate befitting his status.
00:54Even if not the megabuck salary of his co-star.
00:56Indeed, Carrey was paid an eye-watering $7 million, almost half the film's budget,
01:02to play Lloyd Christmas due to the prior success of Ace Ventura Pet Detective.
01:07Daniels, meanwhile, was offered a paltry $50,000 for the role of Harry Dunn.
01:12To be clear, that's 0.007% of Carrey's take-home pay.
01:17Was Carrey really worth 140 times more than Daniels?
01:21Well, New Line Cinema's brass actually didn't want to cast Daniels in the movie at all,
01:26feeling that he was better known for his dramatic work than comedy, and so intentionally lowballed
01:31him with the expectation that he wouldn't take it.
01:34And yet, Daniels was keen enough for the part, despite his agent trying to persuade him otherwise
01:38that he accepted the lousy offer, and the rest is history.
01:429.
01:43Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard – The Village
01:47Many years ago, a budget breakdown of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village was leaked
01:51online, forensically detailing where all of its $71.7 million price tag went, including
01:58the salaries of its main cast members.
02:00Joaquin Phoenix, who plays male lead Lucius Hunt in the film, was paid $5 million, while
02:05Bryce Dallas Howard, who portrays female lead Ivy Walker, received just $150,000.
02:11Now there's no mistaking the disparity in profile between the two at the time.
02:15Phoenix had a recent Oscar nomination for Gladiator, while The Village was Howard's
02:19first major movie role, before which her only significant claim to fame was being director
02:24Ron Howard's daughter.
02:26Even so, given that Howard's role is much meatier than Phoenix's, and Ivy is very
02:30clearly the protagonist of the piece, all while Phoenix's Lucius spends a large portion
02:35of the story incapacitated, it is wild that she was paid roughly 33 times less than he
02:41was.
02:428.
02:43Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt – Passengers Jennifer Lawrence has spoken vocally about
02:48Hollywood's gender pay gap, and how she's been paid less than her male co-stars in films
02:52like American Hustle and, most recently, Don't Look Up.
02:56However, things swung quite nicely in her favour for 2016's sci-fi romance Passengers,
03:01where she managed to negotiate a stonking $20 million payday, all while co-star Chris
03:07Pratt netted just $12 million.
03:10And that's a big quote-unquote just.
03:12It's a surprising chasm of pay given that Pratt's character Jim Preston is very clearly
03:17the protagonist of the story, while Lawrence's Aurora Lane is largely absent from the movie's
03:22opening half-hour.
03:23Even accepting that Lawrence had four Oscar nominations and a win to her name at the time,
03:28and that presented major value for a film initially being touted as an awards contender,
03:33Pratt wasn't exactly a slouch himself.
03:35With leading roles in hit blockbusters such as The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy
03:39and Jurassic World.
03:41Then again, with Lawrence also having all that Hunger Games clout behind her, she managed
03:45to rock both the prestige rep and box office sway, likely influencing her ability to get
03:51paid almost double what Pratt did.
03:53Now what is your favourite J-Lo performance to date?
03:56Was it her work in Passengers or something else?
03:59You let me know in the comments section down below.
04:017.
04:02Richard Pryor and Christopher Reeve – Superman 3
04:06It's well known at this point that Christopher Reeve's $250,000 salary for Richard Donner's
04:11original Superman film was epically dwarfed by Marlon Brando's gigantic $3.7 million
04:18haul for briefly portraying Supe's father, Jor-El.
04:21But that wasn't the only time in the franchise that Reeve ended up getting the short end
04:25of the stick.
04:26By the time Superman 3 rolled around, you might assume that Reeve's salary had massively
04:30leapt up.
04:32And while he was paid $1 million for the sequel, a fair quadrupling of his salary in the first
04:37film, it still paled hugely in comparison to one of his co-stars.
04:41Legendary comedian Richard Pryor played the film's second major role of comic relief
04:45villain Gus Gorman, and due to his high profile at the time, he was able to lock down an incredible
04:51$5 million payday.
04:53Given that Reeve's total salary for all four Superman films is estimated to be around
04:58$8 million, Pryor did insanely well for himself here, especially as his presence in the film
05:04didn't bring the series as many new fans as producers hoped, with it grossing less
05:08than half of what Superman 2 did.
05:11Yikes.
05:126.
05:13Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams – All the Money in the World
05:17For Ridley Scott's somewhat ironically titled biographical thriller, All the Money in the
05:21World, Mark Wahlberg was paid an initial fee of $5 million, while Michelle Williams received
05:27just $625,000.
05:30Even accepting that Wahlberg is undeniably the bigger box office drawer of the two, did
05:35he really deserve to be paid almost ten times what Williams did when their roles weren't
05:39that different in size?
05:41Given that Williams had four Oscar nominations to her name at the time, her casting alone
05:45elevated the film's awards buzz significantly.
05:48Yet the matter got even more frustrating when the movie had to undergo emergency reshoots
05:52to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer.
05:55For the extra work, Wahlberg received $1.5 million, while Williams was paid just $1,000.
06:02As sparked significant enough backlash online, that Wahlberg made good by donating his entire
06:07reshoot salary to the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund in Williams' name.
06:12All the same, if you somehow still needed proof that gender equality is far from a reality
06:16in Hollywood, then here it is.
06:18Cheers for watching this video today folks, hit that subscribe button down below for more
06:22WhatCulture stuff on your screen.
06:255. Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton – Batman
06:29On paper, there's nothing remotely unexpected about the slight pay gap between Michael Keaton
06:34and Jack Nicholson on Tim Burton's 1989 Batman.
06:38Keaton, a controversial casting choice at the time and better known for his comedy roles,
06:43netted $5 million to play the Caped Crusader, while the considerably bigger star Nicholson
06:49edged him out with $6 million.
06:51Except Nicholson was playing an incredibly shrewd game here, as he willingly took a pay
06:56cut from his usual fee of $10 million in exchange for profit participation on the film's box
07:01office and Joker merchandise sales.
07:04It's since been estimated that, per Batman's box office and merch success, Nicholson made
07:10as much as $90 million from the movie – an astronomical leap from what Keaton got.
07:15Then again, one can argue that the Joker is the real attraction of the movie.
07:19No shade to Keaton, and Nicholson's casting and performance certainly helped get a ton
07:24of butts in seats.
07:254. Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
07:31Zoe Saldana got stiff so hard on the first Guardians of the Galaxy that it's enough
07:35to question the negotiating chops of her entire management team.
07:39Saldana was paid just $100,000 for portraying Gamora in the first film, and while we could
07:45compare her salary to lead Chris Pratt's $1.5 million, it's probably more reasonable
07:50to measure her compensation against the movie's other prominent live-action supporting role.
07:55Dave Bautista's Drax the Destroyer has a roughly equal-sized secondary role to Saldana,
08:00and yet Bautista was paid a far more generous $1.4 million – a whole 14 times what Saldana
08:07got.
08:08Hell, Saldana was even paid less than Karen Gillan and Lee Pace, who despite their smaller
08:12parts of Nebula and Ronan respectively, reportedly earned $140,000 and $175,000 each.
08:21Given that Saldana had numerous high-profile roles to her name by 2014 – namely in J.J.
08:26Abrams' Star Trek movies and Avatar – while Bautista was a wrestler still breaking into
08:31Hollywood, it is baffling that their pay differed so drastically.
08:35Bizarre stuff.
08:363. Liv Tyler and Elijah Wood – The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
08:41Elijah Wood is far from the most famous face in the Lord of the Rings franchise, but he
08:46is THE face of the trilogy as Hobbit protagonist Frodo Baggins.
08:51All the same, for his part in the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, Wood received
08:54a mere $250,000 of the blockbuster's $93 million budget, while numerous supporting
09:01roles were more richly compensated.
09:03Take Liv Tyler, playing Arwen in the film, who received an apparent $2 million – eight
09:09times what Elijah was paid.
09:11No matter that her role in Fellowship is a small fraction of Wood's.
09:14Sure, Tyler had many years of well-received arthouse and high-profile blockbuster roles
09:19to her name before production began, but Wood was hardly a slouch himself, having starred
09:24in the likes of The Ice Storm, Deep Impact and The Faculty in the lead-up to The Rings
09:29trilogy.
09:30Though Wood's salary was increased for the sequels, and he was later paid $1 million
09:35for his brief cameo in The Hobbit and Unexpected Journey, that's still a major lowball for
09:39an actor who basically carries the entire trilogy on his back.
09:43And all the way to Mordor.
09:452.
09:46Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street
09:50While it's basically expected that Leonardo DiCaprio is going to get paid more than his
09:54co-stars, due to the sheer star magnetism he brings to any project, the pay gap between
09:59him and Jonah Hill on Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is straight up cuckoo
10:04bananas.
10:05DiCaprio was paid $10 million to play crooked stockbroker protagonist Jordan Belfort, but
10:10Hill, who plays the prominent part of Belfort's right-hand man Donnie, received just $60,000
10:16in total.
10:17Hill himself revealed that he was given only the SAG minimum for his acting work on the
10:21project, which given the movie's $100 million budget surely couldn't help but sting.
10:27Even accepting that Hill was eager to work with Scorsese, given that he had an Oscar
10:32to his name before the film started shooting, it is shocking that he wasn't able to negotiate
10:36himself a better fee.
10:38Much as DiCaprio brings immense value to any project he signs on for, Hill deserved more
10:43than a laughable .006% of what his co-star was paid.
10:481.
10:49Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman – Thor, Love and Thunder
10:53In the first two Thor movies, Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, who play the titular
10:57superhero and love interest Jane Foster respectively, were at least paid something close to the
11:03same ballpark figure.
11:05In the original Thor, Hemsworth netted $150,000, while Portman got $100,000, which given the
11:12comparative size of their roles doesn't seem hugely out of sorts, even accepting Portman's
11:17considerably higher profile as an actor.
11:19For Thor sequel Thor The Dark World, Hemsworth was paid $3 million while Portman reportedly
11:25received less than $1 million.
11:28Not a great outcome for Portman given the size of her role in the sequel, but compared
11:32to the third go-around it seems pretty generous.
11:35After sitting out the prequel Thor Ragnarok, Portman returned for the fourth film, Thor,
11:40Love and Thunder, where she played a larger part as a superheroic version of Jane Foster.
11:47By this point as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's few remaining mainstay characters
11:51post-Endgame, Hemsworth was able to command a huge $20 million salary.
11:57As for Portman though, she got just $1.2 million.
12:01Given that Portman's role in Thor 4 clearly gave her much more to do, and required far
12:06more of her physically, for her to get just a fractional increase on her Thor 2 salary
12:11almost a decade later is rather absurd really, receiving barely 5% of what Hemsworth made,
12:17despite being one of the film's feature attractions, simply makes no sense at all.
12:22This brilliant Portman deserved to be paid, folks.