If you’ve seen season three of The White Lotus, you already know that when it comes to revelations, Jason Isaacs tends to go whole hog. Fortunately for us all, he’s a man of habit. While we’ve seen the last of his prosthetic penis, this man just continues to show us how truly talented he is at saying too much.
In a
new interview with Vulture, Isaacs, once again, discussed the inner workings of
The White Lotus. Only this time, he shared the salary of everyone who starred on the hit series. Spoiler alert: it’s $40,000 for each of the season’s eight episodes.
“I didn’t know that was public knowledge,” Isaacs said when asked to confirm whether the amount was factual. “That’s absolutely true. Generally actors don’t talk about pay in public because it’s ridiculously disproportionate to what we do — putting on makeup and funny voices—and just upsets the public.”
“But compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that’s a very low price,” Isaacs added. “But the fact is, we would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.” Isaacs certainly has a point, given the paycheck of less talented series regulars often exceeds that of less than $40,000—especially for a seven-month shoot in another country. By comparison, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman each earned $1 million an episode for the second season of Big Little Lies. However, it’s somehow refreshing to learn there isn’t a hierarchy or greedy agents negotiating for their client to get the fattest paycheck on a Mike White production. And besides, an extra $40,000 would make a difference for a lot of people right now…
“Do I mind that I wasn’t paid more than other people? I never work for money,” Isaacs ranted on. “I mean, I’ve done all right. People will think I have huge stockpiles of money but sadly, what I’ve done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I’ve earned over the years.” Honestly, same.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Isaacs interview without more gossip about a past co-star. He was also asked about a previous interview in which he said a “global icon” once pushed him out of a frame.
“Oh Jesus…was the worst bully ever and a global icon,” Isaacs recalled. “Did all the old tricks of doing a completely different performance off-camera than on. Yeah, it sucked. I’d never seen anything like it.”
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
