Actors would love to choose movies that are strictly aligned with the projects they love and feel they are a good fit for. But actors can’t always make these kinds of choices just for the sake of art. Many times, when you see your favorite stars in films, they are not necessarily featured because they truly wanted to be there. Sometimes actors make the decision to be in a film solely based on their financial needs. A few brave ones have even admitted that they were just in particular films for the money. This is understandable, as even the rich and famous need to earn money to keep up with their lifestyle. To learn more about these surprising stars, check out six popular actors who admitted to taking a role just for the paycheck.
Alec Guinness — Star Wars
Alec Guinness plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. And while he is well known for the role, he told a friend that Star Wars was “fairy-tale rubbish,” and also detailed in a 1976 diary entry about how much he disliked being involved in the film: “Apart from the money, which should get me comfortably through the year, I regret having embarked on the film. I like them all well enough, but it’s not an acting job, the dialogue, which is lamentable, keeps being changed and only slightly improved, and I find myself old and out of touch with the young.”
Paul Bettany — Iron Man
Paul Bettany voiced Tony Stark’s computer J.A.R.V.I.S. in several Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. But he did not feel that superhero movies were the kind of genre that fit him. “I feel like a pirate. This is robbery. I walk in, I say some lines on a piece of paper for two hours, and then they give me a bag of money and I leave and I go about my day. I sort of feel guilty, because at least acting can be exhausting, with long hours, but I do nothing! And I’ve never seen one of them.”
Jeremy Irons — Dungeons and Dragons
Jeremy Irons played a villain wizard named Profion in the fantasy action film Dungeons and Dragons. He gave insight into why he agreed to join the cast in an interview with The Guardian, which indicated his main motivation was money. “I just bought a castle! I had to pay for it somehow. Like Alec Guinness in Star Wars, I had to give the project some gravitas.”
Morgan Freeman — London Has Fallen
Morgan Freeman played the Speaker of the House, Allan Trumbull, in London Has Fallen, and the prequel Olympus Has Fallen. When asked why he was intrigued by the role in London Has Fallen, Freeman actually started singing, “money, money, money,” the lyrics from the O’Jay’s song entitled, “For the Love of Money.” He added, “These larger production action films pay well. The rewards are many.”
Stephen Dillane — Game of Thrones
Starring in such popular series as Stannis Baratheon, Stephen Dillane could actually barely stomach watching the show. “It’s pretty brutal, I couldn’t watch much of that anyway. It’s hardcore. Too tough for me… It’s just too painful. Money is the main thing I got out of it. It’s an odd situation. There is a kind of etiquette around these things. I think it’s extraordinary. I am not dismissing it at all.”
Glenn Close — Guardians of the Galaxy
Glenn Close played Nova Prime Irani Rael, which is interesting because superhero films are not her typical genre. “I’m gonna go off and do the next generation of Marvel Comics/Disney, and I get to be the chief police officer of the galaxy… I’m doing that because it will then afford me to go do the other kinds of movies that I really love, and hopefully I will have a great time. It’ll be a new experience for me, but practically speaking, it will mean that I can do those smaller movies, and it’ll be okay.”
