# ID the speaker of this old Hollywood quote
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 28, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374 "2018-03-28T20:51:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374/1 "2018-03-28T20:51:13Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374/2 "2018-04-02T13:37:01Z")
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…
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374/3 "2018-04-02T14:47:35Z")
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.’
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374/4 "2018-04-02T16:58:32Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-the-speaker-of-this-old-hollywood-quote/811374/5 "2018-04-02T18:03:45Z")
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.”\*