Yahoo Lifestyle 22 TV And Movie Roles Actors Admitted They Only Did For A Check
There are plenty of reasons actors take certain roles — they love the script, a book they love is being adapted, a director they admire wants to work with them, etc. Sometimes, however, it's more straightforward: they just want to get paid.
Here are 22 actors who only took a role for the money:
1.In 2024, Jared Harris told i News that he played Emil Nicholas in Morbius because he has "got a mortgage to pay." He said, "Sometimes you say yes to things because you need to make money."
He continued, "I have observed that those types of films do well if you have a sense of humor. You can't treat it as though it's Shakespeare. So yeah, that movie could have done with a more mischievous sense of humor."
2.Harrison Ford told Variety that doing motion capture work to play Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World took "not caring" and "being an idiot for money, which [he's done] before."
He said, "I don't mean to disparage it. I'm just saying you have to do certain things that normally your mother would not want you to do — or your acting coach if you had one. But it's fun, and I enjoyed it. I had a great time, and I'm delighted at the response that we got with the trailer."
3.At the Saltburn premiere, IndieWire asked Jacob Elordi what he was looking for in his next role. He replied, "I just play what they give me. I need a job." His next role was Elvis Presley in Priscilla.
In 2017, between filming The Kissing Booth and booking Euphoria, Jacob lived between a friend's couch and his car.
He told British GQ, "I wasn't booking jobs. I think I had – I don't know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account – and Euphoria was my last audition before I went home for a little while to make some money and recuperate."
4.At the Shazam! Fury of the Gods premiere, Rachel Zegler told the Hollywood Reporter that she accepted the role of Anthea because she "needed a job."
"I am being so serious," she continued. "The reality was, we were in the middle of a pandemic and I was not working. I could not get a job for the life of me because West Side Story hadn't come out yet, and it was really hard to book work for me...The fact that they even wanted me to come for a callback and then a chem read and everything in between...I’m so lucky that I got this job."
5.According to director/co-writer Jerry Zucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who's an avid rug collector) was originally offered $30,000 to play First Officer Roger Murdock in Airplane! However, his agent countered $35,000 because it would cover the cost of a fancy rug that Kareem wanted to buy.
Jerry told AV Club, "It was an oriental rug — an art piece, not one to walk on, I don't think — so our initial reaction was, 'That's got to be the best line we've ever heard from an agent.' It was like, 'Boy, this guy's really creative!' But then a couple of weeks later, there's an article in Time with a picture of Kareem standing in front of the oriental rug that he'd bought for $35,000 after we'd paid him."
6.When Michael Caine, who played Hoagie Newcombe, was asked if he'd ever seen Jaws: The Revenge, he replied, "No. But I've seen the house it bought for my mum."
On The Jonathan Ross Show, he added, "It's fantastic!"
7.Morgan Freeman chalked his Ted 2 role, Patrick Meighan, up to "earning a living."
On Today, he said, "If it pays, I enjoy doing it."
8.Jeremy Irons took the role of Profion in Dungeons & Dragons because he'd "just bought a castle."
He told the Guardian, "I had to pay for it somehow."
9.Steve Buscemi reportedly took the role of Rockhound in Armageddon because he "wanted a bigger house."
10.Billy Bob Thornton played Dan Truman in Armageddon because he "had to pay off a divorce."
On the 2008 SXSW panel "A Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton," he said, "When I did Armageddon, I had to have some money! And my manager said, 'Also, this is the deal: You've gotta do movies like this, because if you don’t, you don’t have your picture on a bus stop now and then, people forget about you.' He said, 'You can do the independent films you love all you want. Every now and then, you’ve gotta be on a bus stop. And that's what's going to afford you the chance to do the movies you want.'"
11.Eddie Murphy initially turned down the role of Lieutenant T.M. Landry in Best Defense, but he decided to accept it when Paramount "finally came back with an offer of a million dollars for something like a couple weeks' work."
He told Interview, "Now, I want you to tell me a 22-year-old is going to turn down a million dollars for two weeks' work?"
12.Amanda Seyfried took the role of Sophie Hall in Letters to Juliet because "sometimes, when you want to buy an apartment in Manhattan, you gotta do one or two [romantic comedies]."
She told Vanity Fair, "Romantic comedies are great, though, if they're done well. I love watching them; I just don't necessarily love the process of making one. I like a small production company, a small set. That's sometimes really wonderful. But if you’re working with a director who’s trusted by the studio, then you get to be freer. And I'm not bashing studios; it's just a different way of making movies. It's making movies for a different reason: for money. And that's all great. We all want money. I mean, I love my apartment in New York."
13.After living large off the success of "Parents Just Don't Understand," Will Smith found himself broke when his next album flopped. He also didn't pay his taxes, so the IRS took a lot of his expensive cars and such. His then-girlfriend encouraged him to network at The Arsenio Hall Show, where he met Benny Medina, who pitched him the idea for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
After an impromptu audition at producer Quincy Jones's party, a contract for Will to star in the show was drawn up in the back of a limo that night.
Will couldn't afford a lawyer to help draw up the contract on his own, so Quincy had his assistant get one for him.
14.Glenn Close played Irani Rael in Guardians of the Galaxy because it would "afford [her] to go do the other kind of movies that [she] really love[s]."
During a Q&A at the 18th Nantucket Film Festival, she said, "It'll be a new experience for me, but practically speaking, it will mean that I can do those smaller movies and it'll be okay."
15.Before his original MCU character, the AI voice Jarvis, evolved into Vision, Paul Bettany felt "like a pirate" or a robber while recording his lines for the Iron Man movies because he'd "walk in, [then] say some lines on a piece of paper for two hours, and then they [gave him] a bag of money." At that point, he hadn't even seen any of his own Marvel movies.
In 2012, he told Digital Spy, "I sort of feel guilty, because at least acting can be exhausting, with long hours, but I do nothing! And I've never seen one of them...It's not because of any snobbishness, it's just not my thing. I'm plagued by fanboys who love Jarvis...They come up, and I've got no idea what they're talking about. I've got no idea about Iron Man. I don't get sent the whole script."
Though Vision is obviously a much more demanding role, Paul told Esquire that he'd love to play him forever. He said, "I love Vision. Yes, I'm in."
16.Even after winning her Oscar for Monster's Ball, Halle Berry faced a lack of opportunities compared to her white peers. She still had to accept certain roles out of financial necessity rather than passion because acting is "how [she takes] care of [her] children."
She told Entertainment Weekly, "It's like, okay, that's a film I can't say I'm totally in love with, but this isn't a hobby...But I try to keep that sense of wonder and stay curious. Because being a Black woman, I haven't always had parts that I absolutely love."
17.After wrapping Spectre, Daniel Craig was so burnt out on playing James Bond that "if [he] did another Bond movie, it would only be for the money." Six years later, he did No Time to Die.
After Spectre, he told IndieWire, "I was contracted to do another one. That was all set up. But at the studio, there was a real keenness to get it done as soon as possible. In fact, there was a conversation at one point that went, 'Let's film two movies back to back.' I just went, 'You're out of your fucking minds.' In the nicest possible way. They're just too big."
18.When Stephen Dillane played Stannis Baratheon on Game of Thrones, "money is the main thing [he] got out of it."
He told the Radio Times, "It's an odd situation. There is a kind of etiquette around these things. I think it's extraordinary. I am not dismissing it at all."
He also explained that, while he admired the show for creating such an "amazing phenomenon," he didn't watch much of it himself because he found it "pretty brutal" and "hardcore."
19.Bella Thorne "didn't want to audition for Shake It Up!," but her family was "about to live physically on the street if [she] didn't have that role."
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, she said, "We were living off Stouffer's coupons, and that's all we had to eat every day. That may not sound like a big deal to everybody, but when you're a single mom raising four kids with debt and you have nothing to your name, it's fucking shitty."
20.Tim Roth played Sepp Blatter in United Passions because he "had two kids in college, so [he] had to make a decision, and it was probably poorly judged, but once you make that decision, you have to follow through."
In a Reddit AMA, he said, "The film is awful (can't say that because I haven't seen it), I hated doing it, it was the wrong film but for the right reasons...It's a hard road, being in something you don't want to do, but I'm glad I did it for my family."
21.On the Inchon set, Laurence Olivier, who spent a lot of time during filming on bedrest because of his arthritis, was mainly motivated to play General Douglas MacArthur so he'd have money for his family to inherit. At one point, he reportedly refused to come out of his tent until a briefcase containing $250,000 in cash was delivered via helicopter.
He reportedly said, "People ask me why I'm playing in this picture. The answer is simple: Money, dear boy. I'm like a vintage wine. You have to drink me quickly before I turn sour. I'm almost used up now, and I can feel the end coming. That's why I'm taking money now. I've got nothing to leave my family but the money I can make from films. Nothing is beneath me if it pays well. I've earned the right to damn well grab whatever I can in the time I've got left."
22.And finally, Jackie Chan, who played Chief Inspector Lee, said that "there was no reason [in making Rush Hour], you just give [him] the money, and [he's] fine."
He told Southern People Weekly, "I have reasons to do each film, I have something to say. Unlike Rush Hour...I dislike Rush Hour the most, but ironically it sold really well in the US and Europe."
