Remember when nobody had heard of Game of Thrones? Nope nor do we.
But the blockbuster, globe-conquering HBO series had to start somewhere and we imagine the actors were on a pittance back then…well, comparatively.
Even actors like Braveheart star Brian Cox (who plays William Wallace’s Uncle Argyle) were foolishly turning down roles in the fledgling blood-and-guts show because the pay wasn’t up to scratch.
Now it’s turned into an absolute behemoth and you’ve got huge stars like Daniel Radcliffe (Potter) queuing up and begging for even a bit-part.
Sky will probably have shelled out millions and millions for the rights to air the last two series – seven and eight – because of the huge sums of money it brings in.
So you’re probably not going to be surprised to hear that the stars aren’t on a pittance any longer.
Some of the figures bandied about for what the top actors were being paid in series six were in the region of £300,000 per episode.
But with Winter Coming and shit about to hit the fan in Westeros with Daernerys, Jon Snow and Cersei, the whole world is going to be watching…and that can mean only one thing – pay rises.
If you thought £300,000 per episode was a princely sum, then try tripling it.
Five of the biggest stars are expected to be earning more than $1million per episode – which is the figure Ross, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Monica were on in the final series of Friends.
The Hollywood Reporter claim that the figure is actually an eye-watering £890,000 ($1.1 million) for each of the final 13 climactic episodes.
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), Lena Headey (Queen Cersei) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) will all be raking it in come series seven, which actually only has seven episodes.
But do some simple sums and each one of these big five characters will be collecting a pay cheque of around £6,230,000 for the season…and that’s before they get cracking on the eighth and final series.
We’re going to have to wait until the back end of next year before we get to see the fruits of their labour as filming was pushed back to wait for snow (’cause Winter’s coming, and all that).
Is it too late to apply for one of these smaller parts in the show?
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