There's never been a time in history, no matter what the public thinks, when actors have been paid more than they should be.
I think it's really odd, too, that the public is so privy to how much money the actors make and what movies cost. It seems to me to be beside the point. When I go to a movie I really don't want to think about the money. I want to see the story.
Hollywood don't always pay a lot of money. Because we're English they think we're cheap!
Forget the credit, they (male actors) take all the money as well. We don't get paid even one-third of what male actors get. It's not so much about the money, but it's about (being a) woman.
I don't know why British actors are getting big parts in American TV shows. Maybe it's because we're cheap.
If you do a film with a studio, agents step in, they start saying, 'My actor has to get this amount of money', and it becomes about deals.
Acting is the most wildly overpaid position imaginable.
People have realized that films like Phantom have different remuneration structures.
I'm telling you, man, after I did 'Land of the Dead,' which Mark Canton produced, Universal picked it up, and I had to use stars. I didn't think I needed stars - Dennis Hopper was in it. I loved him. We hung out. I loved him, but his cigar budget was more than we paid for the entire budget of 'Night of the Living Dead.'
Pay in the acting world hasn't kept up with inflation.
Nobody in TV makes as much money as Robert Redford, who likes to make movies for several million dollars only on the condition that they contain some sort of social message. I cannot take very seriously a social message delivered by an actor who is paid nine million dollars to deliver it, and who charges you five dollars to see it.
Nobody deserves this much money - certainly not an actor.
I was never strategic really, but back when I was starting out no one cared. In the acting community, box office didn't matter. I really think it was a mistake when they started paying people like $20 million to do a movie because now it's all people think about. Is she worth it? Is he worth it?
If you grow up poor you're always going to worry about money, no matter how successful or lucky you become. I'm not moaning about what actors get paid - I'm very, very lucky - but the difference between what leading actors get paid and supporting actors get is a lot.
There are 100,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild. Only 2,000 of them make more than $75,000 a year.
When you're having conversations about actors, you realize these same conversations have happened about you. If you want to make a film for $5m, then you cast A, B and C, but if you want $20m, you won't be able to cast them, you need X, Y and Z.
It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid.
People see you on television, and they think you make the same amount of money that Clint Eastwood does. But this is PBS. All these shows are done for free.
Now while the German money is over for Hollywood, I still have $80 million to make movies, and we will have two things coming up: less major movies and the price for actors will go down.
From a producer's point of view, of course, 'Law & Order' presents an ideal - a show that is almost entirely actor-proof, that can keep going and going no matter what happens to the cast or how many actors demand raises.
There are probably less than 100 actors who make more than we do across our empire.
