We often equate fame with wealth, but sometimes, being a celebrity can be surprisingly expensive (especially when you’re first starting out).
Here are 17 times celebs opened up about the expensive things they had to pay for to get ahead:
1.
Rebel Wilson lost money doing Bridesmaids. In 2024, she told the podcast Diary of a CEO, “It was my first job in America. I mean, it was very lucky to get it… But to be paid that little. Basically, that $3,500 I then had to pay to the union to join the union. So, I basically made no money. I lost money, because I had to pay to go to the premiere, like to buy my dress and everything. So, I lost money doing Bridesmaids.”
2.
In 2023, Taraji P. Henson told Sirius XM, “I hear people go, ‘You work a lot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing. And when you start working a lot, you know, you have a team. Big bills come with what we do. We don’t do this alone. The fact that we’re up here, it’s a whole entire team behind us. They have to get paid.”
She continued, “So when you hear someone saying, ‘Oh, such and such made $10 million,’ no, that…didn’t make it to their account. Know that, off the top, Uncle Sam is getting 50 percent. Okay, so do the math. Now we have $5 million. Your team is getting 30 percent, or whatever your team is, off of what you grossed, not after what Uncle Sam took. Now do the math…I’m only human, and it seems every time I do something and I break another glass ceiling, when it’s time to renegotiate, I’m at the bottom again, like I never did what I just did, and I’m just tired.”
3.
In 2024, Busy Philipps told Page Six, “I have to continually hustle. It is so true. With hair, makeup, and wardrobe and what it cost…I look at, like, the amount of money I’m supposedly making, and I look at, like, the bills…and what’s expected of [me]. And then it’s not just the bills, it’s what’s expected of me when I show up at a place, you know? And it’s like, well, okay, this film company or this production company is only gonna pay this percentage of your hair and makeup and wardrobe, so you have to make up the rest. So then you’re thousands of dollars out of pocket, and then, at the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Well, what am I doing?’
“I was saying to Renée [Elise Goldsberry]…I was like, ‘We should just show up a mess at one of these things,'” she said.
4.
In 2024, DJ Qualls told the podcast Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum that he did Hustle & Flow for $10,000, turning down “almost $2 million” from another opportunity. He was very proud when he watched the screening at Sundance, but the experience put him in debt. He said, “I went $30,000 in debt in that. I mean, like, publicity debt. And going to Sundance, people don’t realize that that shit’s not free. You have to pay for all of that. The movie’s not sold. There’s no studio. So you have to pay ten grand to rent a house because your hair and makeup people have to come. You’re doing live feeds to CNN at two o’clock in the morning.”
“It costs you money, and then you have to hire a publicist because there is no publicist. And all of this stuff has to be done, and, I mean, a lot of the business is set up to take money from us. I mean, of course, it is. A lot of the business is parasitic,” he said.
5.
When artists sign with a record label, they’re often given an advance, but they’re expected to pay it back through royalties earned from their music. During a 2024 appearance on the podcast Table Manners, popstar-turned-actor Billie Piper revealed that she’s still in debt to her former label more than 20 years after leaving music. She said, “There’s so much more money…You’re traveling so much more than I see musicians travel now. There’s, like, you know, you do all these big promotional tours, which I hated. I absolutely hated. Hated going off. And video shoots where they would cost, like…I’m still in debt to Virgin. So if I ever release an album, which I won’t, I’d probably have to pay off that debt. It’s like a university debt.”
6.
In 1995, TLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the heels of their successful album CrazySexyCool. At the 1996 Grammys, member Chili said, “We’re not gonna sugarcoat anything anymore. We’ve been quiet long enough…We are the biggest-selling female group ever — 10 million albums worldwide. We have worked very hard. We have been in this business for five years, and we are broke as broke can be. And we’re not trying to be a sad story. If that was the case, we would’ve been on everybody’s talk show talking about how broke we are. We haven’t done that. I know it’s hard to believe because we’ve sold so many albums, but it is possible. That’s the deal here, so, and we’re not happy at all.”
At the time, reps for Arista Records and LaFace Records told the LA Times that the band members had been appropriately compensated under a “fair, industry-standard agreement.” The group and their label later settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. It resulted in a contract that was more fair.
In 2023, Chili alleged to People that, because of bad contracts, the band members were unfairly compensated for album sales and being charged for “gifts” from their label. She said, “When money came in, we were splitting, like, $5,000. We’re the reason [LaFace parent company] Arista Records first got security. We kind of held Clive Davis hostage, like, ‘You’re the head guy. How do we fix this?'”
7.
For Margot Robbie, landing the role of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad came with an increased need for personal security. In 2018, she told The Hollywood Reporter, “There’s just all this stuff you learn along the way, like, when you get those death threats, it’s [smart] to have a security team do a background check on whoever sent them to see if there is any past history of violence, because you’ll need to know whether you need security to go to certain events. And every time you do a background check, it’s going to cost $2,000, so take that into consideration when you’re getting yourself into this.”
She continued, “And it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s a different kind of career.’ Because then you need to always do a job that can financially support that lifestyle; you can’t just do indie films for the rest of your life because that film back there changed everything, and now you have to be able to afford security. I just wish someone had explained a lot of those things to me early on. I wouldn’t have resented the position I found myself in because I would’ve known what I was getting myself into.”
8.
When Demi Lovato was 15, their network advised them to get cosmetic dental work. In 2016, she told Allure, “I signed with Disney Channel when I got Camp Rock, and I had a gap between my two front teeth. They were like, ‘Would you be willing to fix it?’ I wish today that I hadn’t, because my gap was really cute.”
9.
When Tiffany Haddish was shopping for a dress for her Girls Trip premiere in 2017, she bought a $4,000 Alexander McQueen dress, which she’s famously reworn to multiple events. In 2021, she told People, “I [was] like, ‘Oh, hell no. This is my mortgage. I can’t wear this dress…I was just devastated [I couldn’t return it]. I was very upset that I spent that much money on a dress, period. Then I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to wear this dress everywhere I go. I’m going to get my money’s worth.’ …The dress has made me the money that it cost, plus, at this point.'”
She wore the “gown that keeps on giving” to the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards. She’s also worn it on Saturday Night Live, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, and People’s Most Beautiful Issue.
10.
In a since-deleted 2020 TikTok (per the UK’s Metro), Grey’s Anatomy and Reign actor Adelaide Kane said, “So I found out today the internet thinks I’m worth $4 million. My crippling debt says otherwise. WHERE?!” In a follow-up video, she broke down how much she made and how much she had to spend on taxes and her team. She said, “Generally speaking, [Screen Actors Guild] minimum for a series regular on a network show is $20,000 per episode. Say I did 78 episodes on Reign; that pares out to $1.56 million for four years of work. So, assuming that I’ve made $5 million in my entire career since I started working at 16, here is how that breaks down.”
She said that her manager gets 10 percent, her lawyer gets 5 percent, and her business manager also gets 5 percent. She also noted that, as a non-American citizen working in the US, she paid 30 percent in taxes. She continued, “So I lose 60 percent right off the bat, which leaves me with about $2.2 million over the last 14 years. Which, if you average it out, comes down to $178,000-ish a year, which would be fine, a good wage. Except I have to pay rent in major cities, sometimes two cities at once.”
Then Adelaide described some additional costs that her job requires. She said her publicist and social media team costs about $2,000 to $3,000 monthly. Per appearance, she spends $700 to $1,500 on a stylist and $1,000 on her hair and makeup team. She said, “Just to be clear up, every actor I know saves as much as humanly possible because most of us go for months or sometimes years at a time between jobs. And we do get residuals, but… So, I’m fine, but my savings won’t last forever, do you know what I mean?”
11.
Patricia Arquette lost money filming Boyhood, which was filmed over 12 years. In 2015, she told WENN, “It’s important to me as an actor to be able to make a living, [but] I’m going to tell you something – I paid more money to my babysitter and my dog walker than I made on Boyhood, and to be in Boyhood!”
12.
When Gabourey Sidibe made her film debut in Precious, she needed a dress for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. However, in 2018, she told Teen Vogue that no designers offered to dress her for the event because she was “too fat.” So, she purchased an affordable dress from Torrid. She said, “Even though we are moving towards more visibility for plus-size people, there is a lot [of] pushback. So it’s important to keep fighting [and] to keep being visible until the conversation changes and [it] is no longer about our bodies because I’m not my body. I’m a whole person.”
13.
In 2022, Sydney Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter, “I want to have a family. I’ve always wanted to be a young mom, and I’m worried about how this industry puts stigmas on young women who have children and looks at them in a different light. I was worried that, if I don’t work, there is no money and no support for kids I would have…If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that. I don’t have someone supporting me. I don’t have anyone I can turn to to pay my bills or call for help. They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals. The established stars still get paid, but I have to give 5 percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, 3 percent or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month, and that’s more than my mortgage.”
She also explained that, sometimes, costs associated with doing press, such as travel, hair and makeup artists, a stylist, and a tailor, aren’t covered by the network. So, she started doing brand deals. She said, “If I just acted, I wouldn’t be able to afford my life in LA. I take deals because I have to.”
14.
Amanda Seyfried bought her own dresses for the NYC and LA premieres of Mean Girls. In 2022, she told Jimmy Kimmel Live, “I did not have a stylist. I used the only money I had to buy a dress — but there were two premieres, and so I had to buy two dresses because you wear different dresses.”
Describing her NYC premiere dress, Amanda continued, “I didn’t know any of the rules, so I was wearing a white bra and black underwear and no slip. And I paid $600 for that dress. I couldn’t even afford a ride home, no, I’m kidding. I didn’t have a publicist. I didn’t have a stylist. I did my makeup.”
15.
In 2023, Fat Joe told the Wall Street Journal that he thinks major labels are a “Ponzi scheme.” A year later, he expounded on the comment on Instagram Live, revealing he still owed his former label money from hit records he’d made two decades ago. He said, “They asked me independent or major label, and I said major record labels are a Ponzi scheme. What does that mean, Joe? It means that when you as smart as me and when you been long enough as me, you realize it’s just like a bank.”
He continued, “Most of the time, they take a kid who grew up in the projects that’s talented and give you money to make an album. Off the profit of the records, they charge you whatever they spend on the video. It ain’t like we 50/50 partners; we pay half for the video, they pay half. At the end of the day, you could bring a scientist who won the Nobel Peace Prize to do the accounting, and they can’t figure it out. So it’s robbery, all the way through…They own your shit. That’s why I say it’s a Ponzi scheme. I sold two million records, still ain’t recouped. [2001’s] J.O.S.E. sold two million records. When I get my statement from the major label 20 years later, I still owe them money. I put out an album independently on EMPIRE and get distribution. My album might sell 250,000, 300,000 records, I make millions of dollars off of it. What’s the difference?”
16.
After her breakout role in Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone found herself unable to afford the security she suddenly required, so she made do. In 2021, she told Q with Tom Power, “It’s Friday, and you’re you. Tuesday, you’re the Beatles. People are climbing all over your car. You try to walk down the street and suddenly 30 people that were shopping are running, chasing you. You’re running and locking yourself in stores, and the people are like, ‘Wait, don’t lock the door,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ll buy something. Please help me.’ Suddenly, you’re in this weird chase. I didn’t get paid to do Basic Instinct. I made a little bit of money. Michael [Douglas] made $14 million and has points. I made not enough money to buy my dress to go to the Oscars the next year. I was in this weird limbo where I was suddenly famous but didn’t have any money.”
“I didn’t have what I needed. We went to Cannes, and the movie just was insanity. I got back to the hotel, and all of my belongings had been stolen except the clothes on my back. My contact lenses, my film out of my camera, my toothbrush — everything was gone. My room was just rifled through, and we had to get me out of the hotel, but I didn’t have the security to do it. The bodyguards got all the kitchen staff and all the busboys to come up, and they created this big circle that I and my two girlfriends were inside of, and then they try to take me through the lobby. There were so many people, hundreds of people, pulling at us and going berserk. So this was our introduction, ‘Hello, you’re famous.’ We had no idea,’ she said.
Sharon was also on her own when it came to getting ready for the Oscars. In 2023, she told the podcast Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, “When I first got invited to the Oscars [in 1992], right before Basic Instinct had come out. Movie hadn’t come out, so no one would lend me a dress. And then it came out, like, a few days, right before the Oscars or something, and I was gonna present, but no one would give me a dress. It was unbelievable because I didn’t have any money to buy anything. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, all these people in their $40,000, $50,000 dresses.’ And I went and bought a Betsy Johnson jumpsuit because that was it, a polyester jumpsuit. That was the best I could do. And I’m doing my own hair and makeup.”
“And I was just like, ‘Wow, like this is awful. Like, how am I going to do this?’ But then I got there. and I was, like, in the fourth or fifth row back, which was really good. And I was on the aisle, and I was seated right behind Anthony Hopkins. And when I walked by, he put his hands together and put them over his head like [a] champion and held them up to me when I passed him, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, he saw my movie, and he’s giving me that thing.’ And I told my dad, and my dad was like, ‘Kid, you could look good in a burlap sack.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, right.’ And so after that, I thought, you know, it doesn’t matter. I could wear a t-shirt to the Oscars, and so I did,” she said.
17.
And finally, actor Rich Rotella got limb-lengthening surgery to add three inches to his height to help him book more roles. In 2022, he told Business Insider, “I’ve always felt the need to be taller, even as a teenager. I was 5’5″ and felt like I paled in comparison to my peers…I’ve been an actor in Hollywood since 2009 and have worked with a handful of celebrities, from Betty White to Mindy Sterling, and talented filmmakers. Over time, it seemed like I was stuck in the sidekick role. So in 2019, on the eve of my 10th anniversary in Hollywood, I asked some directors and filmmakers to share their honest opinions about my career. They told me I hadn’t been able to get lead roles because of my height. Lead actors are typically 5’8″ and up, they told me. This came as a shock, and I felt like I was knocked down a few pegs.”
A few months later, he took steps towards finding a surgeon. He said, “The price of the procedure depends on the method you choose and if physical therapy is included. I chose to do a femoral surgery, or above the knees, and ended up spending more than $100,000. My insurance didn’t cover the surgery, but I’d recommend that people include physical therapy sessions in their cost analysis. I increased my height by 3 inches, going from 5’5″ to 5’8″. Immediately after the surgery, I sent a mass email to my family and friends informing them of my decision. I received mixed reactions, but a lot of people questioned my judgment…I’m currently working on the documentary [which is set to be released in 2025]… I’m also starting to look for opportunities to get in touch with executives from major studios in the hopes of selling the rights to my story. In the meantime, I have several other films that I’m looking to work on.”
