Jonah Hill accepted a paltry $60,000 paycheck for his Oscar-nominated work on “The Wolf of Wall Street” because it was the opportunity of a lifetime to work with Martin Scorsese, the actor told shock jock Howard Stern on Tuesday.
“They gave me the lowest amount of money possible, that was their offer,” Hill said on Stern’s radio show.
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“And I said, ‘I will sign the paper tonight. Fax me the papers tonight. I want to sign them tonight before they change their mind.’”
The $60,000 figure may seem like a lot to most middle class Americans, but Hill said it was industry scale — the bare minimum the Screen Actors Guild would let the production pay before taxes and agent, lawyer, and manager’s obligatory cuts. It’s just 0.6 percent of the $10 million star Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly received for his role in the film.
But Hill told Stern it was all worth it just for a chance to work with the legendary director, Scorsese.
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“I would sell my house and give him all my money to work for him,” Hill said.
“This isn’t what you make money for. You do ’22 Jump Street’ or you do other things, and you can pay your rent,” he added, referring to the upcoming slapstick comedy sequel with Channing Tatum.
“I would’ve done anything in the world. I would do it again in a second.”
Perhaps if he does it enough times, Hill will join DiCaprio on a “Marty”-name basis with the man most of Hollywood would only call “Mr. Scorsese.”