Jonah Hill's Tiny 'Wolf Of Wall Street' Pay Packet & The Other Stars Who've Taken A Pay-Cut For Success

Jonah Hill has made headlines recently after it was revealed he was paid just $60,000 for his Oscar-nominated role in The Wolf of Wall Street. Now, $60,000 is a lot of money to a lot of people, but in the world of Hollywood actors and their big pay cheques, Hill was paid pitance for his work. Still, he is not the only one to take a pay cut for the sake of the project paying them.

Jonah Hill is apparently nothing like his character in Donnie Azoff

Hill decided to take a pay cut, from the usual 6-7 figure digit he tends to receive, because he was so determined to get the part of Donnie Azoff so he could work with the director of the project, Martin Scorsese. By putting his dreams first and his bank account last, Hill has received his second Oscar nomination to date and has been roundly praised by critics for his role. What's more , Hill isn't alone in taking one for the team and opting out of a big pay cheque for the sake of the project he's appearing in.

As actor's pay slips continue to get more absurd, there is a chance that over time we see more stories like this, and there is also a chance that stories like this happen in Hollywood all the time, it just goes under the radar. The following people haven't let it their personal greed get in the way, or let it go past without notice.

Hill also got to work alongside Leonardo Dicaprio

Next Page: The Simpsons cast feel sorry for Fox and Rupert Murdoch's poor poor wallet

A recent and similar story regarding actors taking pay cuts stems back to late 2011, when the future of the long-running animated comedy The Simpsons was forced to be reconsidered following falling ratings and audience numbers. Fox had to come up with some way of making the show profitable again or risk taking it off the air after two decades of success.

The Simpsons is still going strong now, but was put in doubt at the start of the decade

Harry Shearer, who voices a number of characters for the show including Mr Burns and Ned Flanders, led the way in offering to have his weekly pay cut down by 70% for the sake of the show. Shearer acknowledged that he is well-paid and deserves no sympathy for offering to take a pay cut, arguing that no one is bigger than the show itself.

In the end, Fox renewed The Simpsons for another two series in 2011 (it was renewed for another season last year), with the final pay agreement never being revealed publicly. Somewhere along the line though, we reckon someone has been given a pay cut.

Harry Shearer offered to take a massive pay cut so The Simpsons could stay on air

Next Page: Keanu Reeves doesn't want your money

Perhaps the most famously generous actor of all out there is Keanu Reeves. Keanu's tales of selfless have become the stuff of internet legend and they all check out too. He has given up part of his pay cheque for the sake of a film on a number of occasions, with noble intentions usually behind these decisions.

Keanu has more on his mind than cash

For 1997's The Devil's Advocate, the producers faced a big problem when first choice Al Pacino turned out to be out of their budget for the role of John Milton. That was until Keanu offered to take a major pay cut so that the producers could afford to bring him on to the film, a move which no doubt saved the film from becoming a steaming mess. He did a similar thing three years later for The Replacements, only this time around he took a pay cut so Gene Hackman could be cast in the sports comedy, taking a 90% cut from his original pay.

His most self-less act came with the two sequels for The Matrix however, when he levied his pay cheque in favour of giving the special effects team and costume designers, arguably the real stars of the movie anyway, a bigger pay day. After being paid up to $35 million for the first film, Keanu was offered a rumoured $75 million to agree to another two. Instead, Keanu took an insane cut and had the $75 million divided up equally to be given to the crew members working behind the scenes on the film. Oh yeah, and he also gave the entire stunt team behind the sequels Harley Davidson motorcycles, which is nice.

After appearing in 47 Ronin, Keanu was kind enough to warn the entire cast and crew not to waste their time or money with it