You would like to be in Ving Rhames shoes. Ving Rhames is an actor who has earned millions of dollars for appearing in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies for 39 seconds, yes, you have read right… 39 seconds! Apart from the money, which is already a good reason, meeting one of the most famous actors in the world like Tom Cruise must be a good reason to take part in this experience. I mea, who wouldn’t like to be paid that much for that short time job? I’m in!
The ‘Mission: Impossible’ saga
This saga has 8 movies, being the first one released in 1996. This ‘Mission: Impossible’ are action and espionage movies whose protagonist, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise is very loved by the audience. What’s so appealing about them? Well, their action scenes and the advanced technology used are mesmerizing. Let’s remember the famous scene in ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ (2011) with Tom Cruise climbing the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. I know you are thinking it was a stuntman, but it was really him!
Another aspect that catches the fans attention about the movies is the fact that some characters come back in several movies, like Luther Stickell played by Ving Rhames.
Who is Ving Rhames and his ‘seconds appearance’?
Ving Rhames plays a computer expert and is part of the Ethan Hunt team by helping them with technology issues. This is the only character that has made an appearance in all the movies, apart from the main character, of course.
The actor appears in ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ for the surprising amount of time of 39 seconds! He just had to grab a beer and smile, he didn’t even have any lines. However, this is not the most shocking information about this brief appearance because the amount he earned is going to leave you speechless…
The mysterious amount
Rumor has it Ving Rhames asked for a $7.7 million wage for what he did in that movie. Exactly, he may have thought he had a $7.7 million worth smile. However, we know that the production team didn’t agree on that amount of money as their budget for supporting actors was $5 million.
We don’t know how much he was paid at the end, but he accepted the role so maybe it was a bit less than he asked for. There is no evidence of this being true because the information about their salaries is not public.
Whatever the amount was, it is shocking what Ving Rhames asked for. Do you think this could have been a strategy, so that the production team had to negotiate with him according to what the actor asked for? If that’s the case, he or his team is very intelligent because he continued appearing in the following movies.
This wasn’t the only highly paid brief appearance in the history of cinema
There have always been similar cases to Ving Rhames’ in the history of Hollywood. Many famous actors were paid very well for short scenes.
For example, Marlon Brando earned $3.7 millions for a 10 minute scene in ‘Superman’ (1978). Another classic was Sean Connery with a 2 minute scene in ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ (1991) worth $250,000. One of our contemporaries.
The Hollywood world is so mysterious and unknown that these numbers seem like science-fiction. Average people wouldn’t understand how it can be possible for these short time jobs and the salaries we have mentioned before. We suppose it is a matter of names, depending on who you are you will earn millions for seconds on the big screen.
If you like all the gossip behind the films, I’m sure this article will be of your interest!