40. Ellen Pompeo
Project: Grey’s Anatomy
Proposed Salary: $20 million (current contract)*
Outcome: Network agreed to a raise
Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most popular medical dramas on television to ever grace our television screens. The leading actress Ellen Pompeo is well aware that she is in complete control of the situation. To be sure, Ellen wasn’t the highest-paid actor on the program when it first premiered, and she was far from it in its early seasons. Her co-star, Patrick Dempsey, was being compensated more generously than she was.
Ultimately, Ellen was victorious in her battle with the network, which agreed to pay her $5,000 more per episode than Dempsey was receiving. After years of hard work, Pompeo has risen to the top of her field, earning more than $20 million a year for her role as Meredith Grey.
40. Ellen Pompeo
41. Robert Duvall
Project: The Godfather: Part III
Proposed Salary: $10 million*
Outcome: He passed
Robert Duvall refused to reprise his part as Tom Hagen in The Godfather III. However, the film’s producers pleaded with him too. Nothing had been wrong between the parties; there were no horses’ heads in beds; it was simply a matter of money.
Duvall demanded a higher salary than some of the other performers for the film. Still, the studio was unwilling to pay the extra money. He even went so far as to label the producers as “cheap,” which is likely to have caused some consternation among the audience. Duvall also stated that he believed Coppola was not very interested in having him appear in the film at all.
41. Robert Duvall
