There’s no doubt that Jonah Hill has put together an impressive resume since we first saw him in movies like I Heart Huckabees, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Grandma’s Boy, and of course, his breakout role in Superbad, and his star continues to grow every day. Because of this, you would think that he would be making a decent chunk of coin with each new significant gig he scores.
His latest role is his biggest thus far, playing Donnie Azoff in Martin Scorsese‘s newest release, The Wolf of Wall Street, but the amount of money he made for the movie might surprise you. In a chat with Howard Stern, Hill revealed that his pay for Wolf was only $60,000. Not exactly a small amount of money to most of us, but considering what top actors are usually paid you’d expect to see a higher number.
So why did Hill take such a small paycheck for the role? Continue reading to find out, and to listen to the full interview.
The reason Hill took a major pay cut to appear in the movie is as simple as some of you might have guessed: he really, really, REALLY wanted to be in a Scorsese film. After talking about finding out he was chosen for the role (out of the blue around two months after auditioning), Stern asked him how he goes about negotiating money for this kind of role. Here’s how Hill replied:
“Here was my deal: They gave me the lowest amount of money possible; that was their offer. And I said ‘I will sign the paper tonight, fax me the papers tonight. I want to sign them tonight before they change their mind.’ I said ‘I want to sign them before I go to sleep tonight so they legally can’t change their mind.'”
All of this for a two month rehearsal period and an almost seven-month shoot. This is Scorsese after all, and it’s many actors’ dream to work with him, but still, Hill could have gotten more than their starting offer, right? When asked about this, he said:
“I would sell my house and give him all my money to work for him. This isn’t what you make money for, you do ’22 Jump Street’ or you do other things and you pay your rent. I would have done anything in the world. I would do it again in a second.”
Hill isn’t strapped for cash or anything, so this isn’t a huge deal. He’s worth $30 million according to Celebrity Net Worth, but it’s cool to see someone this passionate about what he does and who he works with. The entire interview below is excellent and worth listening to, but the bits above start at around the 49 minute mark if you want to skip ahead.
This isn’t the first time Hill has spoken about his excitement for working with Scorsese, either. In a chat with The Wrap back in December (also well worth checking out), he says:
“To get to work for Martin Scorsese in any way, let alone play this kind of character in this kind of film, was and is the ultimate goal for me as an actor. It still doesn’t seem real to me.I mean, there are moments when I watch the film and think, I’m in a Martin Scorsese movie. I’m on drugs in slow motion in crazy “˜Casino’ sunglasses in a Martin Scorsese film. This is the best. Stop the tape right now, I want to “˜Groundhog Day’ this for the rest of my life.”
You can check out our review of The Wolf of Wall Street right here.
Interview
[Source: Yahoo! Movies via Cinema Blend]
He made the smart choice, they could have chosen anyone over him. He’s no Leonardo Dicaprio, so he signed on because he was thinking long term: this was a career-making role for him, so now that he’s a household name in a way, he can haggle over money on future projects.
Comment by GregD474 — December 9, 2015 @ 4:06 am