Conversations around pay in film have been ignited after the rumoured low salary of Obsession’s breakout star, Inde Navarette, has been “revealed”, so here are some more examples of low pay in the film industry. We often associate being an actor with riches, glitz, and glamour. But for a lot of actors, this just isn’t the case – many have to slog away at multiple projects for years before they earn enough to make acting their full-time job, if they ever get that far. Some big names involved in massive franchises and films got paid astonishingly low amounts for iconic roles. Harrison Ford started Star Wars with really low pay Before Star Wars, Harrison Ford spent many years as a struggling actor in LA. He earned the bulk of his income from carpentry by the time George Lucas picked him to be Han Solo. He was paid a measly $10k for the iconic role – around $80k in today’s money. The film ended up making $775 million. By the next Star Wars film, he was estimated to make between $10 million and $20 million. Chris Evans wasn’t always the Marvel darling via Marvel For his first Marvel film, Captain America: The First Avenger, Chris Evans earned $300k, which was only 0.08% of the film’s eventual box-office total. Unlike Harrison, Chris had a much more established career in Hollywood at this time, but Marvel films were still a massive box-office gamble. His last few contracts with the studio were in the double-digit millions. Jon Hader earned basically nothing for Napoleon Dynamite The lowest on the list by far, Jon Hader made only $1k for his leading role in Napoleon Dynamite. At this point, Jon Hader was a 25-year-old film student, and the film wasn’t expected to make the huge $50 million it did. It launched his career as a comedy actor, so for his next projects, he was able to negotiate much higher pay. For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image via Disney Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
