11 Movie Actors Who Were Paid The Biggest Salary Per Words

3. Kurt Russell - $144,231 Per Word For Soldier

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Warner Bros.

Kurt Russell is easily one of the coolest cats in cinema history.

Having played Elvis in John Carpenter's biopic of the King, the eyepatch-adorned badass Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, the bearded and similarly badass MacReady in The Thing, loud 'n' brash Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China and Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, hope was high when Russell was announced to be headlining Paul W.S. Anderson's sci-fi actioner Soldier in 1998.

Unfortunately, just two years after the disappointing Escape from LA, Soldier proved to be an absolute dud.

While the film itself was a total turd, the jacked Russell still pocketed a nice $20 million payday for Soldier. That fee breaks down as a staggering $144,231 for each of the 104 words spoken by Kurt's tough-as-nails Sergeant Todd '3465'.

To put into perspective just how hard Soldier bombed, not only did critics slam the film, but the movie didn't get anywhere close to breaking even at the box office, let alone making a profit. From a budget in the region of $60 million - including Russell's $20 million pay - the picture stumbled to a $14.6 million take-home.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.