Miles Teller was paid just $8,000 for lead role in an Oscar-winning movie
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Money
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Michael Kovac/Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Money
Three Oscars, three BAFTAs, a Critics Choice Award and a 94 percent Rotten Tomatoes score - and yet for starring in this highly-celebrated movie, Miles Teller only got $8,000.
Teller is a familiar face in Hollywood now thanks to his appearances in Top Gun: Maverick, the Divergent movies and the 2016 crime-drama War Dogs, so you'd expect him to be raking in the big bucks for his roles.
However, in 2014 the actor took on a role which earned him the equivalent of just a few months' salary - which, in comparison to the millions of dollars other movies stars get, is next to nothing.
Advert
Teller starred alongside JK Simmons in the drama, taking on the role of a young music student determined to impress his teacher with his drum skills.
It sounds like a simple premise, but the resulting movie is endlessly gripping; one that leaves your pulse racing and in need of a few moments to process what you just watched.
Teller's prep time for the movie was just as intense, as he told The Times in 2016: "I was given just two weeks to learn how to be a jazz drummer. Two weeks to learn something like that? And to be an aficionado at it, and not just someone who’s learning on screen?”
Though Teller could have done with some more time to practise for the role, the movie, which is titled Whiplash, received high praise from both fans and critics, with one describing it as a 'monster' as a film.
On Twitter, fans called Whiplash 'spectacular', and 'honestly one of the best films I've ever seen'.
But despite the big requirements that came with the movie, and its resulting success, Teller told The Times he only walked away with $8,000 after taxes.
Speaking in 2015, he explained: "When I did Whiplash, after taxes, I made like $8,000. So for me to be able to make a living, and to pay off my student loans and to do things you want to do, you gotta make studio films."
Teller followed his own advice in the following years as he starred in the highly-anticipated Top Gun sequel - a movie for which he was reported to have earned millions.
He's now looking ahead to future projects, including the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic in which he is set to play attorney John Branca, who worked with Jackson as he transitioned from a singer in a boy band to the King of Pop.