10 Actors Who Got Paid To Do Pretty Much Nothing

It's well-known among film fanatics that Marlon Brando was paid an unprecedented $7 million for his performance as Jor-El in Superman: The Motion Picture, despite only appearing for seven minutes.

If you think that's impressive, the Godfather star made over double that amount for his work on Superman II. At this point, you might ask, "Wait, did Jor-El appear in the sequel?"

No, he didn't. Brando shot a scene where a hologram of Jor-El speaks to Superman, but it was left on the cutting room floor. The scene was reshot where Superman speaks to a hologram of his mother, Lara.

Even though it's always irritating when an actor's scene is cut, this decision was massively problematic for the studio. You see, Brando was contracted to be paid 11.75% of Superman II's earnings. But since he was no longer in the movie, this stipulation was revoked, making his fee significantly lower.

Enraged by studio's meddling, Brando took the producers to court and won. In the end, Brando was paid $15 million for a three-minute scene that nobody saw until it was released in the director's cut 26 years later.