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If this is all the wannabe witches and wizards were getting paid for filming back in the day its probably a good thing I never did get my Hogwarts letter.
Unless you have been avoiding popular culture for the past 25 years, you will be well aware of just how impactful the Harry Potter franchise has been in entertainment.
In fact, Harry Potter and all of the films attached to the universe combine to make it one of the most profitable film franchises in the history of well... cinema.
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So yeah, a pretty big deal.
Growing up and either reading J.K Rowling's words or watching them on the screen, most kids wanted nothing better than to go to Hogwarts and live out their own magical adventures.
But seeing as that wasn’t strictly possible, most would have settled for being part of the film franchise in some way.
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And some kids were lucky enough to be part of the franchise in real life by being an extra or even starring as recurring characters.
However, one of the former stars has taken to social media to pretty much say it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Samantha Clinch featured in two of the Harry Potter films, The Prisoner of AzKaban and The Goblet of Fire. Don’t remember her? Well, she played Eloise Midgen.
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What? You still don’t remember her? She features in the Yule Ball dance lesson scene, the one where Rupert Grint’s Ron Weasley ends up dancing hand in hand with Maggie Smith’s Professor McGonagall.
Yep, right before Ron ends up paired with the professor he’s acting a twit with character Seamus Finnigan and jokes that ‘something is about to burst out of Eloise Midgen'.
Hint: It isn’t a swan.
So back to Clinch, in a TikTok video the actress revealed exactly what extras were paid per day, which would usually see them work for 12 hours. And spoiler alert, it wasn't the big bucks like the franchise's leading stars.
She said: “So, for context, in Goblet of Fire Daniel Radcliffe got paid $11 million - that’s £9.5 million. For extra context, we would do 12 hour days. Big 12 hour days.
“We would be called for breakfast in the holding area outside set for 5:30am, in the morning [...] are you ready for how much we were paid? £35 ($46) a day. That’s £2.91 an hour, is that legal?”
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She added when she got featured a little more prominently as Midgen, her pay took a big jump to £70 ($92) per day.
Clinch joked: “When I became the part of Eloise Midgen, honestly little did I know that day when I was going to set, how the day would change for me - and my bank account!”
“They doubled it, they doubled it. In the grand scheme of things getting paid £2.91 an hour isn't that bad, and there was this constant stream of food. It was like an all inclusive.
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"Seriously, the amount of Squares bars and iced buns we got through, minimum £15 a day."
So, I guess it sort of worked out for everyone. Warner Bros got a globally beloved billion dollar franchise, and the kids got some snacks. Winning.
Topics: Harry Potter, Film and TV
Gerrard Kaonga