If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do with a payday in Hollywood, here’s what 16 actors spent when they first won their scholarship.
From buying “lemons” to a good ol’ Chicago dog, there’s a wide variety of things these actors splurged on when payday rolled around. The answers are quite interesting.
1. Timothée Chalamet told GQ that he got his first big paycheck from a “Disney commercial,” and like a true New Yorker, his first splurge was on “bloody Knicks season tickets.” Sadly, it was the year fans thought LeBron James would come to New York, but instead he went to Miami, which dashed their hopes for the team. Timothée then told him that he had to spend his afternoons trying to sell tickets after school.
2. Selena Gomez bought a “Louis Vuitton laptop bag” with her “first big check,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. Except, instead of showing off her designer wares, she revealed that she was so “scared” that she was going to “screw it up”. She reflected on how she pretended to be a “small businesswoman who had to carry all her important stuff”, but actually contained her “lip gloss” and “laptop”.
3. Jennifer Aniston told Pop Sugar that her first splurge turned out to be a bad investment. She said, “My first big splurge was on a Mercedes that had a ‘for sale’ sign on it for almost two years”. she bought. “I always thought, ‘I can’t wait, someday, someday [I’ll buy it].’ And one day, I bought it, and then I drove it, and then I drove it again, and it never drove it again,” recalled Jennifer. “It was a lemon, which is why it was sitting there. And I didn’t know anything to check it out, so it was just a nice 25-year mistake.”
4. Before Sylvester Stallone’s breakout role in Rocky, he was once a struggling actor. In fact, times were so tough that Sylvester once had to sell his beloved bullmastiff, Butkus, to an acquaintance for $50, he told Shortlist. But when he sold the Rocky script, he went to see his friend and “begged” for his dog back. However, his friend refused, telling Sylvester that his children now loved the dog and even threatened to fight the actor. Fortunately, there was a happy ending – albeit an expensive one. “[Several] threats later”, Sylvester ended up paying “$3,000” for Butkus, who starred in Rocky It is rocky 2 with Sylvester.
5. When Cardi B first hit the scene, she shared with WE tv that she splurged on a $60,000 Patek Philippe watch. “I probably could have checked in on a car, but you know what, like people were telling me, are you going to get it back,” she said. “Everybody’s telling me, ‘Like, you’re a rapper, you gotta shine, you gotta pop!’ It worked in the end, she added, because when she met frequent collaborators, Migos, they were “very impressed” with her bling.
6. For Weird stuff star Joe Keery, his first purchase was very low-key – all he wanted was a hot dog. “A Chicago dog,” said Joe entertainment tonight. “I went back home to Chicago and I went to The Wieners Circle and had a hot dog. A Chicago dog.”
7. John Boyega spilled on Graham Norton Show what he bought with his Star Wars paychecks, and it’s, uh, a collection of oddities. Included in some of John’s purchases: two lion sculptures that stand on the edge of his bed, a saxophone lamp, a Spartan-inspired helmet, and a small metal knight that dispenses toilet paper. “I’m a big fan of Weird Things,” John shrugged.
8. When Emma Watson is Harry Potter paychecks came in, his spending was very practical. She bought a car – and no, it wasn’t something flashy or particularly fast. She bought a “sensible” Prius. “I got my license last year and I love the Prius,” she told Interview. “And, to be fair, it’s not the best looking car on the road, but it’s good for the environment,” she said. “It’s sane and boring – like me.” And in addition to the Prius, she also bought a “laptop” and took her father on vacation to Tuscany.
9. Harry Potter Series co-star Daniel Radcliffe, like Emma, is also low-key when it comes to splurges. He told CNN: “The things I like to buy are things that cost around £10 – books, CDs and DVDs.” When the actor turned 18 and had access to his Harry Potter paychecks, he revealed to Sky News: “The only time I’m going to spend a wad of cash at once – and this is going to sound so geeky – is in bookstores. I’ve walked out of bookstores with a stack of 15 to 20 books before – it’s excessive.” Daniel added: “The only slightly luxurious thing I do sometimes is I can take all my friends out for a night out. And that’s, like, once a year. I’m refreshingly boring.”
10. The final member of the Harry Potter trio, Rupert Grint, lavished on what he first lavished on the Armchair Specialist podcast, and your response was very…unique. “It was so overwhelming, like I literally didn’t know what to do,” shared Rupert. “I bought a hovercraft and an ice cream van,” he replied. “That was my first car.” But that wasn’t the most interesting part, Rupert revealed: “I went through a phase with loads of animals. There were alpacas, pigs, yeah, it was a whole thing. I think I was 16…” He added: ” It was chaos. Alpacas are insane.”
11. In an interview with ShortList, Tom Hiddleston revealed that his first splurge was a car – a Peugeot 106 1.1 he had for “10 years” and “drove around France and Spain”. Later, however, he revealed to Bustle that his first splurge was later destroyed by “joy-riders”. The car was “unfortunately stolen” and “impounded” and “wrecked by some passengers in London”.
12. Oprah Winfrey shared on Oprah Daily how splurged she was when she received her first million-dollar check. “What I splurged on were really good towels,” she said. “I love great towels. Towels that are so big and fluffy that you can wrap yourself around them, your whole body… I splurged on really good, fluffy Ralph Lauren towels.”
13. Awkwafina has starred in movies for crazy amounts of money, but surprisingly, she revealed that she’s not much of a spender. However, she once treated herself to a “Gucci bag and some Ableton software,” she told iNews. And she makes an exception, but only when it comes to karaoke. She shared with the Huffington Post, “I spend literally nothing except karaoke nights.” She said, “If I’m treating, like, a whole group of friends. I’ll spend, like, 3G’s on a group karaoke night, but for me? No!” She further explained, “These pants are from Target, man! What my grandma instilled in me is an anxiety that it’s going to end.”
14. When Kerry Washington signed the classic film, save the last dance, she saved up her per diem – a daily allowance given for living expenses when she travels for work – and bought herself a laptop. Kerry told the Hollywood Reporter: “I couldn’t believe someone was handing me money and I literally used to hide it under my mattress for the whole movie. I put a tight budget on what I could spend. three months and bought my first laptop.”
15. Tom Cruise shared on Graham Norton Show that with his first paychecks, he put family first. “I paid for my sister’s college,” shared Tom. “And then I bought my other sister a car.”
16. In the same interview, Tom’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout co-star Henry Cavill shared on his first splurge, he wanted to treat himself to a new car. (Like Tom Hiddleston, Henry also drove a Peugeot.) When he and his father visited a garage, an Audi R8 caught Henry’s eye, but an even better car caught his father’s eye – an Aston Martin DBS. Well, long story short, Henry ended up buying the top option which costs around $333,686 according to Car and Driver. “So that was my second car,” said Henry. “That’s quite a trajectory,” joked Graham.
What would your break be? See you in the comments!
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