# Why do ultra rich actors make commercials? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** commercials-ads\ **Created:** [January 1, 2023, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469 "2023-01-01T15:33:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/81 "2023-01-03T23:10:21Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > It’s interesting how a lot of actors only do commercial work overseas. I was surprised to see Robert DeNiro doing ads in the UK for the worst bread I’ve ever eaten. I think it was Warburtons? On the other hand, Warburtons did give us this, which was a lot of fun: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Z2N_TVdrhTI/hqdefault.jpg "Sylvester Stallone's Warburtons Advert - High Quality Video") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2N_TVdrhTI) > [@](#): > > Also, Harvey Keitel was in a bunch of ads that got tons of air time…some kind of insurance. Direct Line, using his Winston Wolf “cleaner” persona. Mildly amusing. > [@bump](#): > > Why does Chris Hemsworth **need** that money to play Thor? Why not get a guy who looks like him to play the role and pay less to someone else? The _Ragnarok_ joke aside, I will note that in reality Tom Hanks didn’t do the voices for the Woody merchandise (toys, video games, etc) from the _Toy Story_ films; his brother and fellow actor Jim Hanks did. Jim sounds enough like Tom to make it work, and needed the work more than Tom did. (And was undoubtedly a lot cheaper for the toy companies.) > [@Cervaise](#): > > On top of that, something that hasn’t been mentioned yet in this thread: It was discussed in industry circles during Bruce Willis’s recent decline that one reason for continuing to take garbage parts even in poor health is that there may be a need to satisfy a work requirement to maintain health coverage. Famously why Angela Lansbury cast so many old-school actors in _Murder, She Wrote_ - they needed to have working credits to receive whatever actors’ benefits applied and might otherwise have lapsed. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/82 "2023-01-04T08:18:19Z")
Ha, I’d never seen that Stallone ad before, brilliant. Especially laughed at when he gets in the wrong side of the lorry cab. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/83 "2023-01-04T10:17:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Judi Dench may have been “widely known and admired” among London theatre-goers for certain, and among fans of obscure British cinema As others have already mentioned, you are handily bypassing her TV work from the 1980’s, which made her well-known; everyone knew her face and name, years before the Bond gig. I did, and I have zero exposure to London theatre or obscure British cinema. Wikipedia bio headlines these pre-Bond times of Dench: “1970s - 1980’s - Rise to prominence and established actress”. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/84 "2023-01-04T10:46:54Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > worth of £50 million, what is the benefit to making another million, even if it’s just a few days of work? If I’m not mistaken, the amount of money that actors get paid on a per- **labor** basis (for lack of a better term) is much higher from certain commercials/ads than from movies. Robert Downey, for instance, was paid $12 million by the smartphone manufacturer HTC to make a few ads. The amount of time he had to spent to make those ads was probably really short, and easy, compared to the time and energy in acting in the lead of a full-length movie. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/85 "2023-01-04T12:46:03Z")
i remember in the 90s you almost couldn’t see a UK cop show that dench didn’t appear in t a least once ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/86 "2023-01-04T13:50:24Z")
Ahem. > [@Why do ultra rich actors make commercials?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/31): > > The same principle applies to working on bad films. In 1987, Michael Caine accepted $1.5 million to put in a week’s work in the Caribbean (bringing his family along for the vacation) on Jaws: The Revenge, the fourth in the series. He later wrote in an autobiography, “I have never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/87 "2023-01-04T14:02:32Z")
I even did a casual search of the thread. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/88 "2023-01-04T14:23:11Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > But if you already have a net worth of £50 million, what is the benefit to making another million, even if it’s just a few days of work? Even if you felt you personally didn’t need the extra million, you could always donate it to a charity. A million dollars in exchange for 2 days of your time? You could do volunteer work 5 days a week for the next 20 years and still not make the same impact that the donation would make. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/89 "2023-01-04T14:34:22Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > Wealthy people with wealthy lifestyles have wealthy bills. I just read an article yesterday that said Jennifer Lopez spent a million dollars on her wedding dress for her recent wedding to Ben Affleck. A million dollars. For a dress. Come on, this was the fourth time she got married. How big a deal could it have been? ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/90 "2023-01-04T14:42:32Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But anyone being in a commercial that ran enough to be this kind of problem would be up to his neck in residuals, which is a good thing. Do actors normally get residuals from commercials? I have always assumed that they get a flat fee, and that commercials generally don’t have long enough shelf lives to make residuals an issue. To the OP’s point. The title of this thread mentions “ultra-rich actors.” I don’t know about you, but in my book, “ultra-rich” starts at $1 billion. I’ve just Googled “world’s richest actors” and found the following actors at or near that mark: | Name | Net worth | | --- | --- | | Jami Gertz (because she married a billionaire) | $3 billion | | Tyler Perry | $1 billion | | Jerry Seinfeld | $1 billion | | Shah Rukh Khan (Bollywood star) | $770 million | | Tom Cruise | $600 million | | Robert DeNiro | $500 million | This gets to the OP’s question. Is there a point above which actors/entertainers won’t sully themselves by doing ads? Have any of these really high-net-worth people, approaching or over $1 billion, done commercials? Seinfeld did some for a credit card many years ago, probably when he was _only_ a millionaire. When did DeNiro do the bread ad @BlankSlate mentioned, and how wealthy was he at that time? The OP may be right, that ultra-rich actors don’t do ads, but we haven’t been defining “ultra-rich” high enough. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/91 "2023-01-04T14:44:08Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I just read an article yesterday that said Jennifer Lopez spent a million dollars on her wedding dress for her recent wedding to Ben Affleck. > > A million dollars. > > For a dress. Yeah, but it’s not like that million dollars got lit on fire and no longer exists. It just changed hands. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/92 "2023-01-04T14:52:13Z")
Got it in one. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/93 "2023-01-04T14:54:48Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > Yeah, but it’s not like that million dollars got lit on fire and no longer exists. It just changed hands. I’m not sure what your point is. That million dollars is no longer in Lopez’s possession. Which demonstrates how ultra rich actors can go through a lot of money maintaining the lifestyle they want. The premise that a person reaches a certain level of wealth and can decide they have all of the money they will ever need for the rest of their life isn’t necessarily true. Many people just adjust their spending habits upwards as their income rises. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/94 "2023-01-04T14:57:12Z")
Billionaire Jerry Seinfeld did a few commercials for Acura recently. According to [iSpot.tv](http://iSpot.tv), commercials with Seinfeld have aired 1500 times in the past 30 days. Tom Cruise did some for Porsche a while back. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/95 "2023-01-04T15:17:06Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > Yeah, but it’s not like that million dollars got lit on fire and no longer exists. It just changed hands. Which is the important part. She _spent the money_, which keeps the economy ticking along. It’s when the rich just sit on their fortunes that we have problems. Wealth isn’t Bad. Generational Wealth is. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/96 "2023-01-04T15:17:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I just read an article yesterday that said Jennifer Lopez spent a million dollars on her wedding dress for her recent wedding to Ben Affleck. Not saying you’re wrong but, like jewelry at award shows, it may have been borrowed or the designer gave it for publicity. The valuation is whatever someone says, not actual. Designers would kill for getting their product in front of the public draped on some celebrity’s body. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/97 "2023-01-04T16:10:11Z")
De Niro did some adverts for a car fairly recently on UK TV (they were terrible). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/98 "2023-01-04T16:13:20Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@Quintas](#): > > > > Yeah, but it’s not like that million dollars got lit on fire and no longer exists. It just changed hands. > > Which is the important part. She _spent the money_, which keeps the economy ticking along. It’s when the rich just sit on their fortunes that we have problems. Wealth isn’t Bad. Generational Wealth is. Okay, but I don’t really see this as relevant to the topic. The issue is why a person who already has a huge amount of money would be motivated to seek more money. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/99 "2023-01-04T16:13:58Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Not saying you’re wrong but, like jewelry at award shows, it may have been borrowed or the designer gave it for publicity. The valuation is whatever someone says, not actual. Designers would kill for getting their product in front of the public draped on some celebrity’s body. That’s a valid point. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469/100 "2023-01-04T16:14:48Z")
Seems to me that the people who make commercials even if they don’t “need” the money are people who also are _spending_ their money. YMMV. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-ultra-rich-actors-make-commercials/977469.md?page=6)