10 Actors Who Were Paid Almost Nothing For Great Roles

3. Spencer Lacey Ganus - $926 (Frozen)

frozen elsa
Disney

Until recently, Frozen was the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, raking in almost $1.3 billion in ticket receipts and becoming one of the most dominant pieces of pop-culture of the 21st century.

Everyone knows those characters, everyone knows that song, and everyone assumes that the people involved were paid handsomely for their work on such a high-profile Disney project. But... nope.

Young Spencer Lacey Ganus - who lent her voice to the teenage version of Elsa - only received a baffling $926.20 for her role, according to TMZ. Even though she only had a few lines (other actresses played older Elsa and child Elsa), that figure seems crazily low considering how flush Disney is with cash.

Ganus eventually earned more money via residual payments, but if Frozen had tanked, then she might not have strayed too far from that $926 upfront payment.

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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!