For many actors, 60.000 dollars for almost seven months of filming would have been reason enough to negotiate. Jonah Hill had another concern: that they might change their minds and take the role away from him.
When he was offered the role of Donnie Azoff in The Wolf of Wall Street, he accepted the minimum salary allowed by the U.S. actors’ union, about 60.000 dollars before taxes and commissions. He didn’t even try to get more: he asked them to send him the paperwork that very night so he could sign it before anyone had a chance to change their mind.
Hill had already had successes with films like Superbad and 21 Jump Street, but working with Martin Scorsese was one of his biggest dreams. “I would have sold my house and given him all my money to work for him”, he admitted years later.
The actor even acknowledged that, earning that amount, he probably ended up taking home very little after taxes and agents’ fees. For him, though, the opportunity was worth far more than the paycheck.
And in the end, he was right to bet on the role: his performance earned him his second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He earned a fraction of what a star of his stature could have asked for, but got to work with the director he had dreamed of working with for years.