Bruce Willis Gave Up 99% of His Pay to Work with a Hollywood Legend!

With the release of “Die Hard” in 1988, Bruce Willis was catapulted almost overnight into the stratosphere of Hollywood action stars. However, a glance at his filmography will reveal that after his international breakthrough as John McClane in John McTiernan’s hit movie, the now 69-year-old actor didn’t play it safe.

One might have expected him to stick primarily to action roles after such a career milestone, but Bruce Willis chose to follow his passions instead: the first three films he did post-“Die Hard” were the drama “In Country,” where he portrayed a Vietnam War veteran struggling to reintegrate into society, the dark comedy “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” and the comedic franchise “Look Who’s Talking,” where he voiced the iconic baby!

Even after solidifying his superstar status with the “Die Hard” sequel “Die Hard 2” in 1990 and “The Last Boy Scout” in 1991, Willis embarked on smaller, riskier projects that often didn’t bring in a lot of money. It’s known that he received only $800,000 for “Pulp Fiction”—plus a share of the profits, of course, which was undoubtedly worth it for a cult film of that caliber.

Yet, the fee Bruce Willis demanded for Robert Benton’s drama “Nobody’s Fool” in 1994 was even lower. Nonetheless, the future “Sixth Sense” (1999) star agreed to reduce his salary because he was keen to work with a certain Hollywood legend: Paul Newman. The tragicomedy ultimately gave him that opportunity.

Willis had previously worked on the gangster drama “Billy Bathgate” in 1991 with director Robert Benton, which was a commercial flop but remains one of his favorite films.

As Robert Benton recounted to the Los Angeles Times, he reached out to the actor prior to starting the film, laying out the situation: “I called Bruce and told him, ‘This isn’t like Billy Bathgate, there’s no money in this one.’ I said, ‘We’re all going to make this movie on as tight a budget as possible.’” Willis’ response? “He said, ‘Don’t worry about that. We’re going to have a great time.’”

The future savior of humanity in “Armageddon” (1998) was typically earning around $15 million per movie at that time, while Benton only had $20 million for the entire project. Willis thus agreed to work for a weekly wage of $1,400, which was the minimum union rate for actors at the time—approximately 1% of his usual salary!

Willis and Newman Had Previously Worked Together—Unbeknownst to Newman

In “Nobody’s Fool,” Bruce Willis plays Carl Roebuck, a construction contractor who frequently clashes with his worker, Sully, portrayed by Paul Newman. The chemistry between the two acclaimed actors, from different generations, played a significant role in the appeal of the comedy, which was Oscar-nominated for its screenplay and grossed about $39 million at the box office.

Interestingly, both stars had already appeared together in a movie, and Newman had absolutely no recollection of it! He was quite surprised when his younger co-star one day brought a videotape of Sidney Lumet’s courtroom drama “The Verdict” (1982) and showed him a scene where he appears as an uncredited extra in the background, alongside Tobin Bell, known for his role as John Kramer, aka Jigsaw, in the “Saw” franchise.

In an interview with Playboy a few years later, Bruce Willis couldn’t help but rave about his encounters with Paul Newman, who passed away in 2008.

“He’s incredible. He was 70 and still trying new things with every take. A guy like him didn’t have to do that; he could just show up and be the star. But he wasn’t like that for a minute. We spent a lot of time cracking each other up. It was just guy stuff, us trying to bust each other’s chops. It was crazy. It happened just like that [snaps fingers].”

To rediscover “Nobody’s Fool,” one might need to look for potential DVD releases.