Jonah Hill explains why he did The Wolf of Wall Street for just $60,000
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Jonah Hill
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images/Paramount
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Jonah Hill
Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street was released over a decade ago and brought in a killing, but Jonah Hill was happy with a lesser salary for a simple reason
Even now the film remains popular across the world for its depictions of debauchery and excess among some of the richest stock brokers.
Obviously helped by iconic performances from pretty much everyone involved, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio.
I mean, who wouldn't want to be in the film if you read the script. Jonah Hill was certainly ready to offer his talents to the brilliant movie.
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By the time he was cast in The Wolf of Wall Street he'd already demonstrated his comedic chops in a slew of movies such as Superbad, Megamind and 21 Jump Street. Go watch each of these movies now, they are just as brilliant as the day they were released.
Hill had also shown he could also keep up with some of the biggest names in Hollywood in more serious pieces, as shown by his performance in Moneyball.
Still, he couldn't pass up the chance to work with a director as legendary as Martin Scorsese, and didn't mind taking one hell of a paycut to make it happen.
While he showed he was definitely good enough not to be just a budget hire, he was so eager to work with Scorsese that he once said he'd have been willing to 'sell my house and give him all my money' to make it happen.
Leonardo DiCaprio was paid $10 million for his performance as sleazy stockbroker Jordan Belfort, while Hill received just $60,000 for his efforts.
"They gave me the lowest amount of money possible," Hill said in 2014 on The Howard Stern Show.
"That was their offer and I said, 'I will sign the paper tonight. Fax them the papers tonight. I want to sign them tonight before they change their mind.
"I want to sign them before I go to sleep tonight so they legally can't change their mind'. I would sell my house and give him all my money to work for him."
While he could probably have negotiated a higher payday, he was so eager to work with Scorsese that he agreed to take the legal minimum, according to rules laid down by the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG).
But with the movie earning Hill an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting role, it's fair to say it worked out pretty well for him, in spite of the less than impressive pay check.