In an industry where it’s normal to get a check with more than five zeros for a 40-minute TV episode, The White Lotus is an exception. And not just because of its paradisiacal landscapes and satirical scenarios. Each season of Mike White’s series follows a simple rule: all the main cast members, whether veteran stars or up-and-comers, are paid exactly the same amount. That number is $40,000 per episode. For season three’s eight episodes, that comes to some $320,000 for the whole season.
The information, confirmed by Jason Isaacs in an interview with Vulture, caused a small earthquake in the Hollywood landscape. “Compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that’s a very low price,” said the man who brought to life Timothy Ratliff. “But the fact is, we would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.”
White Lotus producer David Bernad has defended this unique model of equal pay in Hollywood, telling The Hollywood Reporter, ”Everyone is treated the same on The White Lotus,” he said. They get paid the same, and we do alphabetical billing, so you’re getting people who want to do the project for the right reasons, not to quote The Bachelor. It’s a system we developed in the first season because there was no money to make the show.”
So Parker Posey, Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins all got the same salary as Lisa from Blackpink, Aimee Lou Wood, and Patrick Schwarzenegger. No VIP treatment for veterans; no ingratitude for newcomers. Is this a utopia? It’s more like a minor miracle in a world—a salary that seems almost meager when you consider the hefty amounts big-name stars were receiving in 2021, at the height of the streaming boom. (Martin Short and Steve Martin both reportedly earned $600,000 per episode of Only Murders in the Building that year, while Kate Winslet reportedly got $650,000 per episode on Mare of Easttown, according to Variety.) Other hit ensemble dramas throughout TV history have had enormous paydays: the stars of Desperate Housewives, including Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Eva Longoria, each earned $325,000 per episode in the final seasons of the cult series, according to Deadline.
Jason Isaacs, who has been acting onscreen for decades—and remains eternally associated with his role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter saga—makes no secret of the fact that he could have made more money doing another job. But that’s not the point. “Do I mind that I wasn’t paid more than other people? I never work for money. I mean, I’ve done all right,” he tells Vulture. “People will think I have huge stockpiles of money but sadly, what I’ve done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I’ve earned over the years.”
In a television landscape where fees can reach astronomical heights—Stranger Things reportedly paid between $6 and $9 million to its stars for season 5, according to reporter Matt Belloni—The White Lotus is a reminder that equality can also create magic. Admittedly, $40,000 an episode is a more than respectable sum: “Generally actors don’t talk about pay in public because it’s ridiculously disproportionate to what we do — putting on makeup and funny voices — and just upsets the public,” says Isaacs. But on a television scale, it’s almost modest.
Yet everyone is apparently happy with that number, as evidenced by the cohesion of The White Lotus’s cast. The show’s model echoes that established two decades ago by the main cast of Friends, who negotiated collectively to ensure they would each earn the same amount of money for the show. Eventually, they were getting $1 million per episode.
Original story in VF France.
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