Celebrities Who Were Paid Low for Their Hit Movie Roles

Christian Bale only earned $1 million when he starred as Patrick Bateman in the hit film American Psycho. According to reports, he made less than the makeup artists.

“They had paid me the absolute minimum they were legally allowed to pay me,” Bale revealed to GQ. “And I had a house that I was sharing with my dad and my sister and that was getting repossessed. So the first thing was: ‘Holy crap. I’ve got to get a bit of money,’ because I’ve got American Psycho done, but I remember one time sitting in the makeup trailer and the makeup artists were laughing at me because I was getting paid less than any of them.”

He continued, “And so that was my motivation after that. Was just: ‘I got to get enough that the house doesn’t get repossessed.'”

The project became one of his breakthrough roles and made him one of the best stars in Hollywood.