10 Actors Who Were Paid Almost Nothing For Great Roles

6. Jamie Lee Curtis - $8,000 (Halloween)

Jamie Lee Curtis Halloween
Paramount

By far Jamie Lee Curtis' most famous role, Laurie Strode first appeared in 1978's Halloween. She recently reprised the role in 2018's Halloween sequel - where she made millions of dollars - and will star as the character again in two more upcoming movies, where she'll presumably make even more millions of dollars.

But the payouts for her performances as Laurie haven't always been so sizable. Despite the character, the franchise and the actress being incredibly famous and iconic today, Curtis made just $8,000 for her work on the original film.

While promoting the most recent instalment, she told People that her payout was $2,000 a week for a four-week shoot, and that things were so low-budget that she had to go out and buy her character's wardrobe by herself.

The movie eventually made $47 million at the box-office, so hopefully Curtis was able to get her own slice of that pie in some way.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!