Certainly, every actor has movies or plays they would rather leave off of their resumes. Unfortunately for some of our well established and well-regarded performers, these cinematic achievements are often unearthed and put on display for the viewing public to watch and ridicule or just glance at and wonder what on earth they were thinking. For the rest of them, it is just another day at the office… making bad movies and making money (somehow) by doing it. Here are a few:
- Marlon Brando (he played Superman‘s Kryptonian father and was paid $14 million dollars for 13 days on the set. This breaks down to nearly $1.4 million dollars a minute for his total on screen time. An excellent movie, but a miserly performance).
- Elizabeth Taylor (her role as Wilma’s mother (did she have a name?) in the live-action Flintstone‘s movie was about as memorable as her laundry list of ex-husbands. Her payday must have been nearly as extravagant as Mr. Brando’s)
- Ben Affleck (should be named multiple times, but it can be summed up in one word… Gigli)
- Richard Pryor (ok… so maybe not one of our most celebrated actors… but I’m thinking the adult comic famous for his drug-addled standup of the 70s was attempting to change his image in the mid-80s when he decided to sign up for such movies as The Toy, Brewster’s Millions, both of which were relatively harmless comedies. However, he was at least in part to blame for the beginning of the end of a superhero movie franchise).
- Sir Michael Caine (thank goodness he has his role of Alfred the butler to make up for the travesty that was Jaws: The Revenge).
Although these are quite dated to be sure, there must be other memorable (memorable to mention perhaps not so memorable to watch) examples in which well-known and established actors were only looking for their next pay check. Feel free to include your favorite “paycheck” role/movie.
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I will think about paycheck roles… but I liked the Toy!