Steven Spielberg Once Shared That He Never Pays Movie Stars Upfront When They Do His Films
Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker that many A-Listers like Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise have worked alongside with. But Spielberg confided that working with big names isn’t something he typically does in his films. And if he does cast huge stars, he intentionally makes sure they don’t command large salaries.
Movie stars had to risk making no money in Steven Spielberg films
Spielberg’s films have generated over billions of dollars at the box office. The consistent performances of features like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones have made him one of cinema’s wealthiest artists. Thanks to his contributions as both a director and producer, Spielberg has amassed $8 billion according to Celebrity Net Worth. But Spielberg shared that he took a gamble with most of his films that frequently seems to pay off. And it’s a gamble that his fellow movie stars need to take in his films as well.
Speaking with the NZ Herald, Spielberg revealed that he and his A-Listers avoid taking salaries for their movies.
“I haven’t worked with many movie stars – 80 per cent of my films don’t have movie stars – and I’ve told them if they want to work with me I want them to gamble along with me. I haven’t taken a salary in 18 years for a movie, so if my film makes no money I get no money. They should be prepared to do the same,” Spielberg said.
Some of films’ biggest stars accepted Spielberg’s ideals to work with him.
“He took no money up front at all, not a cent and no guarantee that he will get money if the film doesn’t perform,” Spielberg recalled. “Tom Hanks took no cash for Saving Private Ryan but he made a lot of money on his profit participation.”
The movie star that was too big to work with Steven Spielberg
Although Spielberg shared he usually ruled out A-listers being in his movies, he’s made a few exceptions. Aside from Cruise and Hanks, Spielberg has also worked alongside Harrison Ford and others at the peak of their movie stardom.
Will Smith, however, was one celebrity whose star-power might have been too big at the time. The two somewhat collaborated on the Men in Black film, which Spielberg produced. Spielberg even convinced Smith to do the sci-fi feature when the megastar was having doubts.
“I don’t want to be the alien guy,” Smith remembered telling Spielberg on his Youtube channel Will Smith.
Spielberg remarked that Smith was better off letting Spielberg himself do the thinking on the matter.
“‘Do me a favor,’” Smith recalled Spielberg telling him. “‘Don’t use your brain for this one—use my brain.’”
Still, Smith and Spielberg have never collaborated on a project as actor and director. Smith would inquire Spielberg about this in a random encounter.
“I ran into Steven Spielberg at a party, and I jokingly asked him why he never hired me for his movies,” Smith recalled to The Morning Call. “Steven said, ‘Oh, you’re too big for my movies.’ I laughed it off. I said, ‘What the heck is that supposed to mean? Am I too tall?’”
Steven Spielberg took home no money for one of his most critically acclaimed projects
There was one film that Spielberg completely turned down taking home any profits for. His 1993 Oscar-winning movie Schindler’s List was as successful commercially as it was critically. It earned $322.2 million worldwide at the box-office. But Spielberg shied away from pocketing any of its earnings. Instead, he funneled the film’s millions into his Shoah Foundation.
“It is blood money. Let’s call it what it is. I didn’t take a single dollar from the profits I received from Schindler’s List because I did consider it blood money. When I first decided to make Schindler’s List I said, if this movie makes any profit, it can’t go to me or my family, it has to go out into the world and that’s what we try to do here at the Shoah Foundation. We try to teach the facts of the past to prevent another Holocaust in the future,” he once told Today.
The Shoah Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Holocaust survivors. It provides audio and visual testimony of those who personally experienced or witnessed the effects of the Holocaust. Making sure that part of history was never forgotten was very important to Spielberg, who went through a lot of effort to establish Shoah.
“It took about eight years to collect their testimonies from almost 64 countries in 32 languages,” Spielberg said.
