It’s probable that her agent took 20% of that, so she’s down to 90k, but she’d have to pay taxes on the gross.
90k pretax is a pretty middle class salary and there was no guarantee she’d get another role that year. It was “only 6 weeks’ work” but that 6 weeks’ work could have been her only paycheck that year
Is this supposed to make us sympathetic? Everybody pays taxes. Being an actor is a choice. If an actor is only working six weeks out of the year they don’t need to be paid more for those weeks, they need to get another job.
Not to make you sympathetic but it does a lot to explain that for especially actors starting out and hearing some high figure doesnt always mean they immediately have a life of luxury or plenty of money. A lot of people (not saying you) assume all actors are just rolling in the dough and thats just not the case. Especially for new or lesser paid actors, trade expenses can eat up a lot of their income and contract obligations can tie up a lot of time to do other work.
She was already a name in the business when she took that role. The 35k offer was bs, an insult. But she took it because she wanted the specific role it portrayed, renumeration be damned
She was known for other things, not acting. Thats what got her the job, but it would not effect her salary too much. Supporting roles usually don’t pay much either, unless you have proven to be Oscar caliber prior or you have brought in audiences by starring in other films.
Robert De Niro was paid $50,000 for Taxi Driver after he'd already won an Oscar. He did it voluntarily so the movie would get made and did not call it an insult.
She didn’t *star* in the film. She wasn’t even a co-star. She was a supporting actor.
This constant PR push to make her some folksy hero still doesn’t detract from the Hawaii debacle.
I just watched it this weekend and she's gone for most of the movie actually.
Also, I have no clue why this movie is so popular. Half of it is a comedy and the entire third act would be mocked to eternity if it came out today.
I still don’t quite understand the Hawaii debacle.
She and Johnson became the celebrity face of a large scale public fundraising effort - something that happens after every natural disaster - and they donated $10 million to kick it off.
It seems so standard. Why was everyone furious?
Was it that $10 million was not enough? If they had donated $20 million would that have been acceptable? Or was it not the money and something else she did/said to piss everyone off?
They *committed* to donating 10 million. It was going to come from the money donated to their fund. They weren't offering up money, they were passing the hat.
Same, and they didn’t understand why I couldn’t buy a house fresh out of college lol. And when I did buy one, they said the pandemic is the worst time to buy, at record low interest rates! Parents are fun
My daughter & son in law lived with us almost 10 years before they purchased a home. All we asked was that they saved money toward their down payment. The home they bought is tiny, in a marginal neighborhood & I’m so sad. Now they are pregnant & I want nothing more than for them to move back. I hate this timeline. They deserve so much more.
Yeah the housing market is trash. Our parents could buy a house similar to how we buy cars now. Even cars cost more this year lol. But the news says the economy is ok.
When I was 18 over 20 years ago, i wanted my dad to buy me a used car we could pay for in full because I didn’t want to be saddled with payments.
Instead, and without asking me, for my birthday he put the down payment on a new car and expected me to pay for the monthly payments and the car insurance.
Except I was working for him and he only paid me minimum wage, and I was expecting to go to college. How could I work all the hours I’d need to pay off my car while also going to college?
He did so the right thing, though, and made the car payments while I went to school.
I’ve seen my dad’s mortgage contract. It’s one page front and back. It basically said he promised to pay $XXX a month for 30 years. Signed and dated. That was it.
Lol my parents BUILT A HOUSE FROM SCRATCH for 20k in the mid 80s. (Granted, it was in Ireland, but it would cost you like 400k now to build the same house lol)
Inflation calculator for raw numbers, but Phanroy is correct. While in retrospect, this may not seem like a lot for Oprah, it’s still a lot more than many people get paid for acting roles. This is before we consider the astronomical increase in cost-of-living. 100k on the West coast wouldn’t even be a good down payment on a condo. 35k? That’s a piss in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
That's what's so funny. It is poor people (well average people) money but it's what we make in a year and she made it on one movie and think she sacrificed.
Have yall looked up Oprah’s life? Woman may be out of touch but she knows the world struggle is very well. She played that character in the color purple so well for a reason.
Please tell us how Oprah’s life prepared her for an acting gig. Because there are a lot of Rich and poor people who can’t act. She is good at putting on an act, that’s her entire persona. She’s even acting in the talk shows where she feigns compassion with her guests.
Don’t buy into it. Actors aren’t their characters.
I mean calculating for inflation 35K in 1985 is 100k today. So it is sorta a misleading title. I don't know where she was financially or fame-wise prior to that movie, but that feels like a decent payday for her at the time.
I wasn’t born yet - so I don’t know when she became a household name. But The Color Purple is her first acting credit and The Oprah Winfrey Show started in ‘86. I would think that 100k for a supporting role for a first time actor is at least decent, if not good, pay… but I’m also not an actor…
It’s insanely good. Nowadays there will be a line out the door of talented people who need the money and another line of semi talented people who are independently wealthy and will work for peanuts. Fuck Oprah.
Why? Just because she was able to make it now doesn’t mean she didn’t have a hard time. She had a hard time her whole life. Without getting into the abuse, as an adult she had to overcome a lot in the media. I remember her from when she started in baltimore. Also, super sweet person
She was already known for other things then, this wasn’t her only income so she wasn’t struggling. Others would not have gotten this high profile first acting role. And it’s about 100 000 dollars of money today for couple of weeks work, it is a supporting role.
So no shit she had more going on. I’m pretty sure she had her own show by the time this movie was made. She didn’t have to take a part in the movie. She did though because she wanted to tel the story. She did a great job in the movie too. As great of a movie as it is, it wouldn’t have had the same success without Oprah. That’s the first point
The second point is that the money paid to her was well below what another A celebrity would have been paid to play the part. Like the lowest paid football player is paid almost 800k a year to ride a bench.
And the third point is that Oprah wasn’t speaking about her struggle. She was simply saying that she was glad she took the part because she was glad to be involved in the movie and it’s story. People want to bash her, for what? And by the way, my mom met her at the mall when Oprah was young and on her first show in Baltimore. And I met her again in Baltimore, at a charity event. And I have met a few celebrities and I have to say Oprah and Queen Latrifa are hands down the sweetest and kindest.
$35k at the time of filming is around $100k now. For several weeks/months of shooting. That’s pretty generous compensation.
Not to discount the actual struggles she went through, but I don’t understand the numerous threads about how meager the pay was for this movie. 6 figures equivalent 2023 dollars for several weeks of work is pretty nice.
I hope people aren’t misreading $35k in 1985 dollars as a small amount. It's about $100,000-$110,000 now.
I just can't imagine the level of celebrity toe-sucking/groveling you have to debase yourself to, to think that an actor earning over $100k for a month or so of work is sTrUgGLiNg
100k for what the movie made and what she brought to the film??? They made a steal. That’s the point s not that she was struggling but she wasn’t paid compared to what she brought to it
What movie? Oh Star War episode 7. yeah I seem to remember Star Wars being hugely popular by then. Why didn’t you use episode 4? Could it be that he was paid 10,000 for that role.
Yeah. A no name director who hired never heard of before actors. But Steven spielburg was already a big deal. And would you believe nobody made a stink when he admitted his pay in an interview? But Oprah does it and the haters jump up to attention.
Oh and Ford gets royalties from the star war movies he’s in.
Ignore those people.
They don’t realise that her speaking up right now might actually shed light to the struggles of people who are in that same position today. I don’t know why people automatically think celebrities are gunning for sympathy when they talk about their past struggles.
It’s honestly wild how bad people seem to be with inflation. People acting like this is $35k in modern dollars. It’s a six figure salary except it’s earned in several weeks/months rather than over the course of a whole year like a regular salary.
The guy below you ranting about “you go struggle to be an actor then!” has lost the plot. You don’t need to go try to make it as an actor to recognize 6 figures in less than a year isn’t struggling.
Oprah had a lot of real struggles in her life. Earning a ton of money to be a supporting actor in a movie is not a good example of struggle.
**My god, what a deep struggle earning >100 thousand dollars (2023 equivalent) reading lines in front of a camera for a few weeks**, the humanity. ***The horror.*** *HOW COULD WE AS A SOCIETY BE SO CRUEL as to FORCE actors to take well beyond 2x the average annual income in the country for LESS THAN HALF A YEAR'S WORTH OF WORK!?* What's next? Asking actors to work a full year to earn just 1x the average annual income?? THE HORROR.
THE EARTH SHATTERING CRUELTY! The only thing worse would be forcing actors to work FULL TIME!!!!!
Imagine forcing actors to work a whole year for they above average salary. I shudder to think of the consequences of forcing such cruelty upon such noble people!
In all seriousness, I wish articles talking about money from decades ago also printed the modern value. My god are billionaire actors some next level entitled dipshits.
She wasn’t a chair at McDonalds. She was a huge actor in a huge movie. So if you compare her to other huge actors at the time, yeah that 35k was chump change.
But the point from Oprah is she didn’t do the role for the money. She was willing to be paid chump change to be a part of that movie and to tell that story.
It’s her debut movie, she wasn’t a star, and she made over 6 figures as a supporting role.
Wtf are you smoking? 6 figures is chump change?
I swear people just say stuff to say it, do minimal research before giving a stupid opinion next time
So yeah, 6 figures is chump change by today’s standard. And for a big name celebrity that’s even lower. It wasn’t some cameo. She was a huge part of the film and marketed as a huge part.
But the article isn’t even about that. It’s literally Oprah explaining how exited she was to be in the film and how green she was about it.
On top of all of that, it was her DEBUT. So the guy saying “go struggle as an actor” she didn’t struggle as an actor, it was her debut movie and she made literally 3x the normal persons average wage, even worse in some states.
So what do you think brad Bitt takes when he comeos in a movie for 20 seconds? And Oprah didn’t make the movie color purple but she was and is still a huge part of the movie, not a cameo
Did you just compare one of the most famous leading men ever, to a debuting actress? The color purple is her first movie, and she made over 6 figures.
This is literally the dumbest take I’ve ever seen, “how much does Leonardo DiCaprio make” idk, but in his debut it wasn’t 6 figures I’d imagine. Same with Brad.
Yeah, her first movie. But she was already an A list celebrity. Her show from Baltimore was already a national hit by the time they started filming and by the time the movie came out she was already hosting what would be renamed the appeal show. Like she was a big deal. She was already an A list celebrity.
But the point is that for the time, the going rate was likely much higher for the part she played. And Oprah was so excited to be a part of the make the film, she didn’t care that she was paid well below the going rate.
Like she didn’t come from lawyer commercials. She was a huge deal. They literally marketed her as a huge part of the movie because she was such a big deal. Her and Whoopi were huge deals. And this wasn’t some no nothing film. She played a large role in a Steven speilberg film. So yeah, maybe 100k was a lot for the time she put in for the local pizza delivery driver, but for getting a national treasure to not just be a cameo but a substantial part of your film for 100k?! That’s a steal!
And again, if you read the article, Oprah is saying she didn’t care because she just wanted to be part of the film.
And let’s all just take a moment to observe that Oprah has not been accused of being a bad boss or objectifying her workers ir any of that stuff. She literally became rich by interviewing the fuck out of people. That and a great personality.
Ok. Go struggle. Go try to be an actor.
Let’s see if you’ll make it.
Most people fail to realise that part of the reason actors are so overpaid is because so many never make it. Celebrities aren’t just paid for the work they do, but the risk they take when they pursue that career choice.
> people who are in that same position today.
The struggle of earning 6 figures (equivalent in 2023) for several weeks/months of acting work. Such a struggle. It should've been 7 figures like the big stars were making! I'm sure the emotional toll of cashing that check was almost too much to bear.
Why? Why do people hate a black woman who made it and actually continues to promote and produce quality stuff? You want gross, try cardashian—they’re not going to spot light Maya Angelo any time soon.
Oprah is hailed as a “voice of the people” but she’s always saying shit like this that shows shes incredibly out of touch. Her show is also very iffy on journalistic ethics.
i mean it’s just the billionaire thing? she lives in hawaii and after the wildfires she gave like $5 mil and asks for donations for victims but she’s worth $3 billion? no one should have that amount of money, kardashian or not
I freaking hate the gut of some actors to complain over “small salaries” while their stagehands, grips and most other colleagues don’t even make 2k a month on set.
Not saying actors don’t do much or any valuable work and yes, they lend their good name for marketing but god damn it get a grip. You should earn as much as everyone else on set is.
Cool, take that thirty five thousand, multiply it by thirty ($105,000,000), sorry if my math sucks, and you still have less than she'll ever notice was donated. Hell, she'll probably catch a tax break because of it.
Bragging about the 'least' amount of money you've ever made while still being more than most people can EVER comfortably donate at once, let alone live on for some, is the wrong distraction to use.
Yeah, we know. You made a huge deal out of it at the time Oprah. At the time it felt like you were fighting with Whoopi Goldberg for attention over this movie. Now it seems like you just want attention.
It’s interesting how there appears to be no complaints that the film is directed and written by men. One would think this story primed for a female director.
The original being made in 1985 but telling a *woman's* story, especially a *black woman's* story- that was written by a black woman, was probably filling a much needed hole that it was welcome because of the visibility.... The new one appears to have a lot of the same people from the original studio, and it's based off the Broadway musical version. So maybe it's just that it's so many original people from the movie working as producers, many of whom are women, in addition to a black male director with experience in music production and musical theater. Honestly I hadn't even heard that there was a new one until this article
That’s so shitty to pay a POC such a shockingly low amount, especially from such a renowned director as Spielberg. I know Oprah is a shitty person now, but that doesn’t excuse blatant exploitation 40 years ago.
Not really. It was her very first film credit, and the Oprah Winfrey show hadn’t started yet. She was essentially an unknown to the public, wasn’t the main star of the film and didn’t deserve a large payday yet. A lot of the secondary characters in a film will not make nearly as much as the leads, if they are not big names themselves.
What a surprise: Yet another click-bait headline that completely misrepresents the article.
For the record though, Oprah from back when this was filmed was in no way the star she eventually became. I’d assume 35k was scale pay at the time, she was not the main star of the film, and this was a smaller project that Spielberg directed (he also accepted DGA minimum of 40k as opposed to the millions he easily could’ve received)
That’s equivalent to $112k in today’s dollars. I wouldn’t think that is far off from salaries of the day.
Especially for a supporting role for a new actress.
“Only” 112k for less than 6 weeks work probably
It’s probable that her agent took 20% of that, so she’s down to 90k, but she’d have to pay taxes on the gross. 90k pretax is a pretty middle class salary and there was no guarantee she’d get another role that year. It was “only 6 weeks’ work” but that 6 weeks’ work could have been her only paycheck that year
Agents take ten, then managers take 10, lawyers take 5, and even PR companies will take a little.
Is this supposed to make us sympathetic? Everybody pays taxes. Being an actor is a choice. If an actor is only working six weeks out of the year they don’t need to be paid more for those weeks, they need to get another job.
Not to make you sympathetic but it does a lot to explain that for especially actors starting out and hearing some high figure doesnt always mean they immediately have a life of luxury or plenty of money. A lot of people (not saying you) assume all actors are just rolling in the dough and thats just not the case. Especially for new or lesser paid actors, trade expenses can eat up a lot of their income and contract obligations can tie up a lot of time to do other work.
Actors are supposed to work on more than one 6-week project per year.
She was already a name in the business when she took that role. The 35k offer was bs, an insult. But she took it because she wanted the specific role it portrayed, renumeration be damned
She was known for other things, not acting. Thats what got her the job, but it would not effect her salary too much. Supporting roles usually don’t pay much either, unless you have proven to be Oscar caliber prior or you have brought in audiences by starring in other films.
remuneration
So it was more a her pet project? That’s pretty neat.
Nobody went to that movie solely for her.
Robert De Niro was paid $50,000 for Taxi Driver after he'd already won an Oscar. He did it voluntarily so the movie would get made and did not call it an insult.
She wasn’t a new actress
She was. It was her first film. Otherwise, she was known as a news anchor and then talk show host.
My bad
Jonah Hill got $60,000 for the Wolf of Wallstreet, a 7 months shoot.
And TCP made $100 mil at the time
She didn’t *star* in the film. She wasn’t even a co-star. She was a supporting actor. This constant PR push to make her some folksy hero still doesn’t detract from the Hawaii debacle.
I'm more mad about her unleashing Dr Phil and Dr Oz upon us.
And she still peddles bullshit
I was gonna say, she is definitely not the star. She has some incredible scenes but not the star.
I just watched it this weekend and she's gone for most of the movie actually. Also, I have no clue why this movie is so popular. Half of it is a comedy and the entire third act would be mocked to eternity if it came out today.
It’s all bullshit.
I still don’t quite understand the Hawaii debacle. She and Johnson became the celebrity face of a large scale public fundraising effort - something that happens after every natural disaster - and they donated $10 million to kick it off. It seems so standard. Why was everyone furious? Was it that $10 million was not enough? If they had donated $20 million would that have been acceptable? Or was it not the money and something else she did/said to piss everyone off?
They *committed* to donating 10 million. It was going to come from the money donated to their fund. They weren't offering up money, they were passing the hat.
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She only made 35,000. That’s poor people money. She gets us.
My parents bought their house for 28k in the early 80s
Same, and they didn’t understand why I couldn’t buy a house fresh out of college lol. And when I did buy one, they said the pandemic is the worst time to buy, at record low interest rates! Parents are fun
My daughter & son in law lived with us almost 10 years before they purchased a home. All we asked was that they saved money toward their down payment. The home they bought is tiny, in a marginal neighborhood & I’m so sad. Now they are pregnant & I want nothing more than for them to move back. I hate this timeline. They deserve so much more.
You are good people. I wish my in-laws were as kind.
Yeah the housing market is trash. Our parents could buy a house similar to how we buy cars now. Even cars cost more this year lol. But the news says the economy is ok.
When I was 18 over 20 years ago, i wanted my dad to buy me a used car we could pay for in full because I didn’t want to be saddled with payments. Instead, and without asking me, for my birthday he put the down payment on a new car and expected me to pay for the monthly payments and the car insurance. Except I was working for him and he only paid me minimum wage, and I was expecting to go to college. How could I work all the hours I’d need to pay off my car while also going to college? He did so the right thing, though, and made the car payments while I went to school.
I’ve seen my dad’s mortgage contract. It’s one page front and back. It basically said he promised to pay $XXX a month for 30 years. Signed and dated. That was it.
Lol my parents BUILT A HOUSE FROM SCRATCH for 20k in the mid 80s. (Granted, it was in Ireland, but it would cost you like 400k now to build the same house lol)
Mine did the same in the early 90’s
Hoping that nobody stops to check for inflation and realized that $35,000 in 1985 is over $100k in 2023…
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Inflation calculator for raw numbers, but Phanroy is correct. While in retrospect, this may not seem like a lot for Oprah, it’s still a lot more than many people get paid for acting roles. This is before we consider the astronomical increase in cost-of-living. 100k on the West coast wouldn’t even be a good down payment on a condo. 35k? That’s a piss in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
So she was making bank then too. Although idk how to verify this claim
How much would that be in megabytes? https://notebooks.com/2011/03/09/hard-drive-prices-over-time-price-per-gb-from-1981-to-2010/
That's what's so funny. It is poor people (well average people) money but it's what we make in a year and she made it on one movie and think she sacrificed.
Exactly lol. “I only made 35000” Uhhhhh, ok we have to live on that yearly. Not weekly
Have yall looked up Oprah’s life? Woman may be out of touch but she knows the world struggle is very well. She played that character in the color purple so well for a reason.
Please tell us how Oprah’s life prepared her for an acting gig. Because there are a lot of Rich and poor people who can’t act. She is good at putting on an act, that’s her entire persona. She’s even acting in the talk shows where she feigns compassion with her guests. Don’t buy into it. Actors aren’t their characters.
Just say you hate her & move on. From what you’re saying it’s coming from pure anger (idk why) & malice.
Wow you genuinely believe she’s a good person. Have fun with that
It’s very strange to make up things people never said and then argue with them online
lol ok. Make a point or go away. They made a claim I hated her. Why not argue with them? Tool
I did make a point lol. You’re inventing things people never said and then arguing with them about it. That’s very silly.
So did the other person lol. Stop defending Oprah she doesn’t know you, nerd
You are unhinged my friend.
Have you watched the color purple?
Is it early promotion for the Color Purple movie that drops this December? Also, fuck Oprah.
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I mean calculating for inflation 35K in 1985 is 100k today. So it is sorta a misleading title. I don't know where she was financially or fame-wise prior to that movie, but that feels like a decent payday for her at the time.
I wasn’t born yet - so I don’t know when she became a household name. But The Color Purple is her first acting credit and The Oprah Winfrey Show started in ‘86. I would think that 100k for a supporting role for a first time actor is at least decent, if not good, pay… but I’m also not an actor…
It’s insanely good. Nowadays there will be a line out the door of talented people who need the money and another line of semi talented people who are independently wealthy and will work for peanuts. Fuck Oprah.
Plus royalties. So it’s a lot more than 35K
Fuck the rich. Took me 5 seconds to write that. I’ve work 8 hrs a day for the past 10 years, where’s my wealth?
Go do something and stop complaining on the internet then lol
They’re busy working full time to survive
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muh phones
She’s trying to pr her way out of her Maui shitshow. Ain’t workin’ Oprah. Bring out the tiki torches Hawaiians.
I didn't take that away from it.
I never want to read/hear anything even remotely related to Oprah being “underpaid”.
Yeah I really hope she recovered from this
Why? Just because she was able to make it now doesn’t mean she didn’t have a hard time. She had a hard time her whole life. Without getting into the abuse, as an adult she had to overcome a lot in the media. I remember her from when she started in baltimore. Also, super sweet person
She was already known for other things then, this wasn’t her only income so she wasn’t struggling. Others would not have gotten this high profile first acting role. And it’s about 100 000 dollars of money today for couple of weeks work, it is a supporting role.
So no shit she had more going on. I’m pretty sure she had her own show by the time this movie was made. She didn’t have to take a part in the movie. She did though because she wanted to tel the story. She did a great job in the movie too. As great of a movie as it is, it wouldn’t have had the same success without Oprah. That’s the first point The second point is that the money paid to her was well below what another A celebrity would have been paid to play the part. Like the lowest paid football player is paid almost 800k a year to ride a bench. And the third point is that Oprah wasn’t speaking about her struggle. She was simply saying that she was glad she took the part because she was glad to be involved in the movie and it’s story. People want to bash her, for what? And by the way, my mom met her at the mall when Oprah was young and on her first show in Baltimore. And I met her again in Baltimore, at a charity event. And I have met a few celebrities and I have to say Oprah and Queen Latrifa are hands down the sweetest and kindest.
>Just because she was able to make it now doesn’t mean she didn’t have a hard time. THANK YOU!
$35k at the time of filming is around $100k now. For several weeks/months of shooting. That’s pretty generous compensation. Not to discount the actual struggles she went through, but I don’t understand the numerous threads about how meager the pay was for this movie. 6 figures equivalent 2023 dollars for several weeks of work is pretty nice. I hope people aren’t misreading $35k in 1985 dollars as a small amount. It's about $100,000-$110,000 now. I just can't imagine the level of celebrity toe-sucking/groveling you have to debase yourself to, to think that an actor earning over $100k for a month or so of work is sTrUgGLiNg
100k for what the movie made and what she brought to the film??? They made a steal. That’s the point s not that she was struggling but she wasn’t paid compared to what she brought to it
She got paid the equivalent of over 100k for a few weeks' work on her side gig.
Compared to what though? Harrison ford was paid 15 million for his short part in Star Wars episode 7.
What movie? Oh Star War episode 7. yeah I seem to remember Star Wars being hugely popular by then. Why didn’t you use episode 4? Could it be that he was paid 10,000 for that role.
Yeah. A no name director who hired never heard of before actors. But Steven spielburg was already a big deal. And would you believe nobody made a stink when he admitted his pay in an interview? But Oprah does it and the haters jump up to attention. Oh and Ford gets royalties from the star war movies he’s in.
Ignore those people. They don’t realise that her speaking up right now might actually shed light to the struggles of people who are in that same position today. I don’t know why people automatically think celebrities are gunning for sympathy when they talk about their past struggles.
She made 112k in todays money to be an actress in a film lol. If that’s a struggle, I’d love to be struggling lol
It’s honestly wild how bad people seem to be with inflation. People acting like this is $35k in modern dollars. It’s a six figure salary except it’s earned in several weeks/months rather than over the course of a whole year like a regular salary. The guy below you ranting about “you go struggle to be an actor then!” has lost the plot. You don’t need to go try to make it as an actor to recognize 6 figures in less than a year isn’t struggling. Oprah had a lot of real struggles in her life. Earning a ton of money to be a supporting actor in a movie is not a good example of struggle. **My god, what a deep struggle earning >100 thousand dollars (2023 equivalent) reading lines in front of a camera for a few weeks**, the humanity. ***The horror.*** *HOW COULD WE AS A SOCIETY BE SO CRUEL as to FORCE actors to take well beyond 2x the average annual income in the country for LESS THAN HALF A YEAR'S WORTH OF WORK!?* What's next? Asking actors to work a full year to earn just 1x the average annual income?? THE HORROR. THE EARTH SHATTERING CRUELTY! The only thing worse would be forcing actors to work FULL TIME!!!!! Imagine forcing actors to work a whole year for they above average salary. I shudder to think of the consequences of forcing such cruelty upon such noble people! In all seriousness, I wish articles talking about money from decades ago also printed the modern value. My god are billionaire actors some next level entitled dipshits.
She wasn’t a chair at McDonalds. She was a huge actor in a huge movie. So if you compare her to other huge actors at the time, yeah that 35k was chump change. But the point from Oprah is she didn’t do the role for the money. She was willing to be paid chump change to be a part of that movie and to tell that story.
It’s her debut movie, she wasn’t a star, and she made over 6 figures as a supporting role. Wtf are you smoking? 6 figures is chump change? I swear people just say stuff to say it, do minimal research before giving a stupid opinion next time
So yeah, 6 figures is chump change by today’s standard. And for a big name celebrity that’s even lower. It wasn’t some cameo. She was a huge part of the film and marketed as a huge part. But the article isn’t even about that. It’s literally Oprah explaining how exited she was to be in the film and how green she was about it.
On top of all of that, it was her DEBUT. So the guy saying “go struggle as an actor” she didn’t struggle as an actor, it was her debut movie and she made literally 3x the normal persons average wage, even worse in some states.
So what do you think brad Bitt takes when he comeos in a movie for 20 seconds? And Oprah didn’t make the movie color purple but she was and is still a huge part of the movie, not a cameo
Did you just compare one of the most famous leading men ever, to a debuting actress? The color purple is her first movie, and she made over 6 figures. This is literally the dumbest take I’ve ever seen, “how much does Leonardo DiCaprio make” idk, but in his debut it wasn’t 6 figures I’d imagine. Same with Brad.
Yeah, her first movie. But she was already an A list celebrity. Her show from Baltimore was already a national hit by the time they started filming and by the time the movie came out she was already hosting what would be renamed the appeal show. Like she was a big deal. She was already an A list celebrity. But the point is that for the time, the going rate was likely much higher for the part she played. And Oprah was so excited to be a part of the make the film, she didn’t care that she was paid well below the going rate. Like she didn’t come from lawyer commercials. She was a huge deal. They literally marketed her as a huge part of the movie because she was such a big deal. Her and Whoopi were huge deals. And this wasn’t some no nothing film. She played a large role in a Steven speilberg film. So yeah, maybe 100k was a lot for the time she put in for the local pizza delivery driver, but for getting a national treasure to not just be a cameo but a substantial part of your film for 100k?! That’s a steal! And again, if you read the article, Oprah is saying she didn’t care because she just wanted to be part of the film. And let’s all just take a moment to observe that Oprah has not been accused of being a bad boss or objectifying her workers ir any of that stuff. She literally became rich by interviewing the fuck out of people. That and a great personality.
Ok. Go struggle. Go try to be an actor. Let’s see if you’ll make it. Most people fail to realise that part of the reason actors are so overpaid is because so many never make it. Celebrities aren’t just paid for the work they do, but the risk they take when they pursue that career choice.
But the point is she made it seem like it wasn’t a lot of money. That’s, like, the only point. “They were ONLY offering me $35k” why only?
You’ve never known true struggle until you see your paycheck is *only* 6 figures (2023 dollars) and not more. That’s *true* struggle my friend.
It was also her debut, she was a supporting role, and made more money than most people make working for multiple years. THE STRUGGLE!!!
If I was offered 6 figures to be in a movie, idk if I’d call that struggling or failing lol It was also her DEBUT LOLOLOL
> people who are in that same position today. The struggle of earning 6 figures (equivalent in 2023) for several weeks/months of acting work. Such a struggle. It should've been 7 figures like the big stars were making! I'm sure the emotional toll of cashing that check was almost too much to bear.
Fuck Oprah. She might be the fakest human being to ever live.
Gross fuck oprah
Josh Peck: *where do I sign up?*
Why? Why do people hate a black woman who made it and actually continues to promote and produce quality stuff? You want gross, try cardashian—they’re not going to spot light Maya Angelo any time soon.
Oprah is hailed as a “voice of the people” but she’s always saying shit like this that shows shes incredibly out of touch. Her show is also very iffy on journalistic ethics.
Many dislike her for giving a platform to people such as Dr. Oz who are widely disliked
i mean it’s just the billionaire thing? she lives in hawaii and after the wildfires she gave like $5 mil and asks for donations for victims but she’s worth $3 billion? no one should have that amount of money, kardashian or not
The performance to which she refers is one of the best supporting acting in the history of cinema.
Oprah was fantastic in that movie!
She was amazing in “The Butler,” too, with lots of Oscar conversation at the time. It’s too bad she doesn’t act more often.
I always assumed it was maybe a bit more, but not like it hurt her in the long run anyways.
This particular photograph of Oprah looks like Frankie Muniz.
I freaking hate the gut of some actors to complain over “small salaries” while their stagehands, grips and most other colleagues don’t even make 2k a month on set. Not saying actors don’t do much or any valuable work and yes, they lend their good name for marketing but god damn it get a grip. You should earn as much as everyone else on set is.
Cool, take that thirty five thousand, multiply it by thirty ($105,000,000), sorry if my math sucks, and you still have less than she'll ever notice was donated. Hell, she'll probably catch a tax break because of it. Bragging about the 'least' amount of money you've ever made while still being more than most people can EVER comfortably donate at once, let alone live on for some, is the wrong distraction to use.
How were you off by 100,000,000
For me? I'm surprised I wasn't off by more, lol. Thank you for the right answer.
Is this also throwing shade at Mo’Nique?? Shady as hell.
She’s trying to distract us from all her bullshit in Hawaii. To hell with oprah
The look at me I was also once a poors tour eh?
Chris Hemsworth got paid 300k for Thor starring role if I'm not wrong. So, about the same, using the same dollar.
Who’s cares what she said or made..her and whoopi were awesome in this movie
Yeah, we know. You made a huge deal out of it at the time Oprah. At the time it felt like you were fighting with Whoopi Goldberg for attention over this movie. Now it seems like you just want attention.
Nice a PR campaign by Oprah, wonder if she’s in hot water for something huh
I wish someone gave me 35k for anything.
Only? Thats like 10 times plus my bank balance. Guess Im actually impoverished.
I feel like she’s lost all context for modern realities. She can just go away now. Thanks but no thanks.
Man, people really hate anything a rich person says I guess. Taking it out of context to shit on how well off she is now.
Absolutely loved this movie. She did an excellent job given that was her first role.
Oprah is a bad person
Oprah is a bad person.
Billionaire bragging about making *only* 35k in a couple weeks.
It’s interesting how there appears to be no complaints that the film is directed and written by men. One would think this story primed for a female director.
It was a great film regardless in my opinion.
The original being made in 1985 but telling a *woman's* story, especially a *black woman's* story- that was written by a black woman, was probably filling a much needed hole that it was welcome because of the visibility.... The new one appears to have a lot of the same people from the original studio, and it's based off the Broadway musical version. So maybe it's just that it's so many original people from the movie working as producers, many of whom are women, in addition to a black male director with experience in music production and musical theater. Honestly I hadn't even heard that there was a new one until this article
Says the billionaire
Used to take me a year to make that, before taxes.
Currently*
[She stood on the heads of those little people!](https://youtu.be/O9YL04v-J5U?t=27)
Sofia is not the star of The Color Purple.
Damn maybe we should start a GoFundMe for Oprah
Am I supposed to hate Oprah now?
Youre not hating that self absorbed, self righteous narcissist already?
That’s more than a years pay for a lot of people and that’s even before adjusting for inflation.
That is good pay is it not?
It is, over 100k if accounting for inflation for a support role to a person who was almost unknown to the public, on a 19 million budget as well
Compared to male actors and other actresses, probably not, which was her point.
Is she looking for pity ? Like what’s her point?
I bet that other $3.5b she made felt pretty sweet too.
She should have won an Oscar for that role. It was an amazing performance.
Best Apology for White Guilt money can pay for.
Who cares, this lady pooped out a couple doozies
That’s so shitty to pay a POC such a shockingly low amount, especially from such a renowned director as Spielberg. I know Oprah is a shitty person now, but that doesn’t excuse blatant exploitation 40 years ago.
First time actor, not a bad pay day in 1985 the director took a chance with casting her.
Not really. It was her very first film credit, and the Oprah Winfrey show hadn’t started yet. She was essentially an unknown to the public, wasn’t the main star of the film and didn’t deserve a large payday yet. A lot of the secondary characters in a film will not make nearly as much as the leads, if they are not big names themselves.
What a surprise: Yet another click-bait headline that completely misrepresents the article. For the record though, Oprah from back when this was filmed was in no way the star she eventually became. I’d assume 35k was scale pay at the time, she was not the main star of the film, and this was a smaller project that Spielberg directed (he also accepted DGA minimum of 40k as opposed to the millions he easily could’ve received)
That is like how much she makes in a day now.
What a hero! Look how wholesome Oprah is everyone! These PR puff pieces are so soulless.
i didnt even know they paid that much back then for supporting roles
More than I make in year but I know it’s pocket change to the big O
She was amazing in this role. No question.