5 Actors on Strike Who Revealed Their Surprisingly Small Residual Checks Online

By: Riley Brown | Published: Nov 07, 2023

It’s easy to assume that television and movie stars are instantly rich once they land a coveted role in a major production, but things aren’t always what they seem. In fact, most actors are receiving astonishingly low residual checks, while others aren’t getting any payments at all.

This has become such a major issue that the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, is taking matters into their own hands by going on strike. For their part, unsettled actors are revealing exactly how much money they really take in through residual checks, and their payouts will surely surprise you.

Mandy Moore Got "81-Cent Checks" For Her Work On "This Is Us"

Mandy Moore may be a household name thanks to her decades-long career, but she is still one of the many celebrities receiving embarrassingly low residual checks. The Emmy-nominated actress, who starred in the popular NBC series This Is Us, has spoken out about the lackluster payments.

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She admitted that she only earns “81-cent checks” in streaming residuals. To make matters worse, Mandy mentioned that her business manager once “received a residual for a penny.”

Kimiko Glenn Uploaded Her Sparse "Orange Is The New Black” Residual Checks To TikTok

Kimiko Glenn, who appeared in over 40 episodes of Orange Is The New Black, went viral after sharing a pay stub noting that she only banked $27.30 for her role on the Netflix series.

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Kimiko found humor in the situation, joking that she was about to “be so rich” while scanning up and down a long list of her acting credits, only to zoom in on the ridiculously small sum at the end.

William Stanford Davis Earned 3 Cents For "Abbott Elementary" Role

William Stanford Davis, who has been a SAG member for over three decades, insists that his earnings have never increased. In a recent TikTok video, the veteran actor displayed a measly 3-cent residual check he received for his work on Abbott Elementary.

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“I showed this to my brother, and he fell on the floor laughing,” he explained in the video before adding that his low wages were nothing to laugh about.

Heather Matarazzo Makes Less Than 10 Cents In Residuals

Heather Matarazzo of The Princess Diaries and Scream fame fired back at a TikTok comment that suggested her earnings as an actress must be “elite.”

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In a fiery video shared to the platform, she displayed a screenshot of various residual checks, none of which exceeded ten cents each. Proving that her earnings are anything but elite, she then asked viewers, “Do those look like elite numbers?”.

Mara Wilson’s Paychecks Weren’t Even Enough For Healthcare

Despite being a working child actress for most of the 1990s, Mara revealed that her earnings weren’t enough to qualify for basic healthcare benefits.

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Mara, who starred in hit movies such as Matilda and Mrs. Doutbfire, believes the rise of streaming services has created more problems for actors. In a recent Tweet, she said, “Thanks to streaming, I have never once made enough to qualify for SAG-AFTRA healthcare.”