I think I may have posted a thread about this a long time ago, but don’t recall if I got a definite answer. Anyway, I once heard a story about old Hollywood in which a famous movie star, whose name now eludes me, was getting paid by the studio he worked for something like $300,000 a picture. For the late 40s/early 50s, this was an astonishing, some might say OBSCENE amount of money to be paid per picture. The movie star was then being interviewed by a particularly skeptical reporter who bluntly asked him, “What makes you think you’re worth $300,000 a film?”
To which the movie star gave an equally blunt response: “Because I can get it.”
Offhand, I would guess Clark Gable, but I have no idea who really said it. Does anybody recognize this quote?
Don, I searched the Internet and couldn’t find an answer. I don’t think it was Clark Gable, but I remember reading about this exchange a few years ago so I thought I could figure out who it was. No such luck. Even if it’s just anecdotal there should be evidence of it somewhere. I’ll keep looking…
I was watching an episode of The Graham Norton Show, on which Will Smith was a guest. Smith praised his co-star Joel Edgerton, who spent hours in the makeup chair for his role in Bright. Smith said that Edgerton went through the makeup ordeal, while he (Smith) just showed up like, ‘Hi!’
Smith said, ‘I feel bad for taking most of the money.’
Kirk Douglas? James Dean? Rock Hudson? Frank Sinatra? … Not a ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ like James Stewart or Gregory Peck. Because is sounds a little d-ckish.
For what it’s worth, this brings to mind the reply attributed to Babe Ruth when the size of his paycheck prompted a guy to ask if the slugger thought he was worth more than the President of the United States. * “Why not? I had a better year than he did.”*