Elijah Wood’s Lord of the Rings salary isn’t the only surprisingly low Hollywood payday
One actor made less than the make-up artists.
The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is one of the most successful movie series of all time – but the actors playing the Hobbits didn’t exactly feel the full benefit.
Directed by Peter Jackson and filmed over the course of an entire year, the Lord of the Rings films became beloved the world over and have grossed $3billion since their release.
The sets used for fantasy adventure epics are still up, with the real-life locations in New Zealand still attracting millions of tourists from around the world.
But Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd – the actors who played the four main Hobbits – all earned much less than you’d think.
After making £3bn at the global box office, you’d expect the film’s leads to be swimming in their fortunes, but one of them has admitted that his paycheck ‘wasn’t massive’ after all.
Here are seven major Hollywood actors who all earned much less than expected – or were paid next to nothing – for some of their most iconic roles.
Elijah Wood – The Lord of the Rings How much would you want to be paid to take the One Ring to Mordor? (Picture: New Line Cinema)In an interview with Business Insider, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood revealed that his paycheck for doing all three movies in the trilogy ‘wasn’t massive’.
Starring as Frodo Baggins, the Hobbit tasked with taking the One Ring to Mordor, Elijah was incredibly high on the cast list alongside names like Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom.
But despite such a high position in the credits in three of the most successful films of all time, it turns out Elijah wasn’t exactly set for life afterwards.
‘Because we weren’t making one movie and then renegotiating a contract for the next, it wasn’t the sort of lucrative scenario that you could sort of rest easy for the rest of your life.’
The Lord of the Rings movies were all shot back-to-back over roughly an 18-month period, with completely separate scenes from The Two Towers and The Return of the King often filmed at the same time.
It’s never been fully disclosed exactly how much Elijah earned for playing Frodo, but his co-star Sean Astin – who played Samwise Gamgee – revealed he was paid around £190,000 for all three films.
Now, you’d hardly sniff at £63,000 per film and we don’t expect to see Elijah at job club any time soon, but considering the films grossed a figure that’s 15,000 times higher, you’d expect a little more to come the actors’ way.
George Clooney – Good Night and Good Luck George Clooney was paid for writing, directing, and producing… (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Independent/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)George Clooney is one of the most famous faces in Hollywood, having starred in some of the most successful films of all time.
His net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions and he’s won several accolades, including two Academy Awards and several Baftas and Golden Globes.
An actor of such status would surely be able to demand a high salary regardless of what kind of film he was making – but that wasn’t the case for his 2005 film Good Night and Good Luck.
Written and directed by George, the 63-year-old (43 at the time) starred in the film as well, which went on to receive a total of six Academy Award nominations.
But George was staggeringly only paid $3. That’s right. He earned just a dollar each for writing, acting, and directing the film that earned a healthy 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
He explained: ‘I didn’t want to make a film that would get compromised by studio executives, so I decided to finance it myself. It was a risk, but it felt like the right thing to do. 20 years from now, you want to be able to say to people that you stood for something besides your own career.’
Well, it has been 20 years, and we can say that statement is true. It seems George had the last laugh anyway, with Good Night and Good Luck now a Broadway production that’s raked in over £2million already.
Christian Bale – American Psycho The make-up staff laughed at Christian Bale’s paycheck (Picture: Lionsgate/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)If you haven’t seen American Psycho, starring Christian Bale, then you will have definitely seen the dozens of memes the film is responsible for.
A cult classic, the satirical horror film didn’t make much money at first, but has slowly built up a reputation as one of the best and most popular films of the 2000s.
However, Christian has revealed that his salary for working on American Psycho ultimately amounted to ‘less than the make-up artists who worked on the film’.
He told GQ: ‘I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister and that was getting repossessed. So the first thing was, “Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money.”
‘I remember one time, I was sitting in the make-up trailer and the make-up artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them.’
He continued: ‘So that was my motivation after that, it was just, “I’ve got to get enough money that the house doesn’t get repossessed.”‘
Jennifer Lopez – Hustlers Jennifer Lopez ‘did Hustlers for free – and produced it’ (Picture: Annapurna/STX/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)Jennifer Lopez once insisted, in her 2002 hit song, that while she ‘used to have a little’ and ‘now [has] a lot,’ she was very much still Jenny from the block.
And the superstar actress, singer, and businesswoman remembered those homely values when she landed the role of Romana Vega in the 2019 crime film Hustlers.
The film made over £120million at the global box office and received a positive reaction from critics, with the film currently sitting at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes – Jennifer was even touted as a potential Oscar nominee for her role.
Despite this, the Love Don’t Cost a Thing hitmaker was paid absolutely nothing, telling GQ: ‘I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers.’
She continued: ‘I did it for free and produced it. I bank on myself. Like Jenny From the Block — I do what I want, I do what I love,’ adding that she has ‘never been motivated by money’.
Jennifer did receive several best supporting actress awards for her work on the film, but Hustlers was famously snubbed by the Academy when Oscars season came around.
Bill Murray – Rushmore Bill Murray was paid less than he offered to shoot a scene that wasn’t even used (Picture: Touchstone/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)Bill Murray and film director Wes Anderson have worked together on no less than 10 films together, with the two striking up their partnership for the 1998 film Rushmore.
Starring Bill alongside a young Jason Schwartzman, the independently produced film was co-written by Wes and actor Owen Wilson and barely made back its $10million budget.
This means Bill took a salary of just $9,000 (£6,900) for almost half a year’s work, and even offered to pay £25,000 for a shot of his character from the film riding in a helicopter.
While Rushmore only made around $17million (£13m) at the box office, Wes Anderson’s career only went upwards, and the two have continued to work together since.
In 2004, Wes and Bill teamed up for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which started with a budget of $50million (£39.5m), considerably higher than that of Rushmore.
Hilary Swank – Boys Don’t Cry Hilary Swank won the Oscar for best actress… for next to no pay (Picture: 20thC.Fox/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)For her performance in 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, Hilary Swank won the Academy Award for best actress, beating the likes of Laura Linney and Ellen Burstyn.
The emotional film, which has since been added to America’s National Film Registry, depicted the real-life story of transgender man Brandon Teena, who was murdered in 1993.
Hilary, who was one of the biggest names in Hollywood through the 1990s and 2000s, was paid just $3,000 (£2,300) for her work on the film, which took almost two months for Hilary to complete.
In fact, her salary was so low that Hilary wasn’t able to secure health insurance with the amount she was paid, which required a payment of $5,000 to qualify.
The film currently boasts a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 7.9 out of 10, with Hilary’s performance in particular praised by critics.
Sir Christopher Lee – The Wicker Man Sir Christopher Lee promoted The Wicker Man after waiving his salary (Picture: Studio Canal/REX/Shutterstock)We started this list with a Lord of the Rings star, so we’ll end it with another – Sir Christopher Lee played the wizard Saruman in the Peter Jackson trilogy.
But way before he was playing evil wizards, Sir Christopher was the lead in the legendary 1973 folk horror film The Wicker Man, also starring Edward Woodward.
The film follows the story of Woodward’s Sgt. Howie, who visits the fictional north Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl.
What he finds there is a community that has abandoned Christianity and embraced a violent and sinister form of ancient Celtic paganism.
Made on a budget of just £470,000 (equivalent to £5m in 2025), Sir Christopher was so passionate about The Wicker Man that he waived his salary just to get the film made.
Beyond that, Sir Christopher reached out to every film critic or writer he knew and asked them if they could spread the word themselves in order for the film to make back its money.
When the film was released in the United States in 1975, he travelled over the Atlantic, paying out of his own pocket, to advertise and promote the film in America himself.
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