Jim Carrey once took a major gamble by agreeing to take no upfront salary for his role in Yes Man.
The 63-year-old Hollywood icon's 2008 comedy Yes Man may have divided critics, but it was a resounding success at the box office, pulling in a whopping $223 million worldwide on a budget of just $70 million.
The film, which was directed by Peyton Reed and starred Zooey Deschanel, was loosely based on British comedian Danny Wallace’s memoir.
It follows a man who decides to say “yes” to everything life throws at him after a run-in with a life-changing guru.
But the real story isn’t just on screen - it’s how Carrey got paid. In a rare Hollywood move, the Dumb and Dumber star took no upfront salary for the film, and instead, he struck a deal for 36.2 percent of the movie’s profits, Virgin Radio revealed.
That gamble turned into a goldmine as Yes Man earned an estimated $153 million in profit, and Carrey’s cut is believed to be somewhere between $35 million and $50 million, well above his typical $20 million fee.
The Golden Globe winner's risk-taking didn’t stop at financial gambles. He was once in talks to star in a sequel to Bruce Almighty called Brucifer, where his character would play Satan, and Jennifer Aniston’s Grace would return as a zombie.
Screenwriters Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe said the comedy star was all in and even pitched: “She has to look like a zombie first and then we’ll make her beautiful again.” Studios, however, passed on the project, despite Carrey’s enthusiastic support.
Betting on his own name clearly paid off for the Mask actor. By comparison, Matt Damon, best known for starring in Good Will Hunting and The Talented Mr. Ripley, once famously turned down a 10 percent stake in Avatar, which would have made him one of the highest-paid actors ever.
Explaining his decision, Damon told Variety: “I’m sure it’s the most money an actor ever turned down, you know?”
“I had a contract,” he explained, per Variety. “I was in the middle of shooting the ‘Bourne' movie and I knew that we were going to need work at the end and I had to get it all the way to the finish line and I would have to leave the movie kind of early and leave them in the lurch a little bit and I didn’t want to do that. I desperately wanted to work with Cameron. I mean, because he worked so rarely.
“I don’t know how I could have left all my friends in the lurch. You know what I mean?” Damon added about his decision to stay with Bourne over starting work on the blockbuster.