Modern Family‘s Ed O’Neill and Parks and Recreation’s Rob Lowe spoke at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Emmy Comedy Actor Roundtable. They sounded off on low-paying acting jobs, with O’Neill specifically blasting HBO for offering him a key role in its planned film about music producer Phil Spector but low-balling him on his fee. Lowe chimed in, claiming that studios exploit actors’ willingness to take good material for less money, a practice he called “bullsh*t.”
Ed O’Neill said, “I just had a thing last week where I thought for sure I was going to do a thing for HBO with Al Pacino and Bette Midler. Mamet directing. And I get the offer, six weeks work, I’m playing Bruce Cutler, [Spector's] lawyer, and they said “$40,000.” Rob Lowe then asked, “Ex-squeeze me?” O’Neill proceeded, “So I said, “I thought you said $40,000 for six weeks’ work.” “Yeah.” Scale. “Yeah.” Is Al working for scale?” “No.” “Is Bette working for scale?” “No.” I said, “Well, good luck.” Now, I’m not doing it. Lowe replies, “You can’t.”O’Neill then said, “Of course I can’t do it. But then you say “Wait a minute, what the f—? You know. That lasts about three or four days. Then you say, “Well, I’m going to Hawaii.” That happens all the time.” ’
Lowe ends with saying, “You know why it happens? It’s because they know that at the end of the day we love good material. And they will use that to exploit us. And that’s — excuse me — bullshit.” Check out the video below:
