Aurora Starchild
It’s always nice when we hear about women getting paid their fair share. That takes on a whole different meaning for Julia Roberts, however. She was paid $14 million for a 6-minute cameo in Valentine’s Day.
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Julia Roberts Was Paid Almost $12,000 Per Word in Valentine’s Day Cameo
Roberts, who plays Captain Kate Hazeltine, sits on an airplane mildly flirting with Bradley Cooper’s character for most of her cameo. For that, she was paid a $3 million salary and $11 million more in backend shares, making for a $14 million payout for pretty much sitting on her butt.
According to Vulture, Roberts negotiated 3% of the backend profits for Valentine’s Day. She knows what’s up, and so did the executives at New Line Cinema. Because if you put Julia Roberts, the Queen of rom-coms, in your rom-com, you’re probably going to sell a lot more at the box office. You can’t fake that smile or the twinkle in her eyes.
Vulture estimated that Roberts was paid $8,333 per second, $11,952 per spoken word, or about $500,000 per minute of screentime for a 6-minute cameo.
Valentine’s Day, which came out in 2010, also starred sweethearts Taylor Swift, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner. The director was Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, A League of Their Own). Needless to say, it was a hit, making $216.5 million at the box office on a $52 million budget.
According to Vulture, Roberts agreed to do the cameo for Marshall because of the stardom she achieved from Pretty Woman. For that role, she earned an Oscar as well as a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Actress.
Roberts Set the Salary Negotiation Bar High for Other Actresses, Too
But that’s not the only killer salary that Julia Roberts has negotiated for her talent and charm. According to The New York Times, she was the first actress to ever command a $20 million salary.
Pretty smart woman!
That was for Erin Brokovich in 2000. From that point on, she was able to demand higher and higher rates. She made $25 million for Mona Lisa Smile in 2003. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Roberts made $50 million from a 5-year contract with Lancôme starting in 2009. She’s still a global ambassador for the company, so the money must be good.
Julia Roberts’ films have collectively grossed over $2.8 billion at the global box office. You can pretty much guarantee that if she’s in the film, it’s going to do well. Steel Magnolias, Mirror, Mirror, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Mystic Pizza, Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and the TV series Homecoming are just some more examples of Roberts’ projects, all which became instant classics.
Interestingly, she’s only had 68 credits to her name since the start of her film career in 1987. That number isn’t comparatively high when you look at other big names in Hollywood. Some actors have to work in twice the number of projects to achieve the same amount of notoriety that Roberts has.
Today, She’s Worth a Quarter Billion Dollars
Not to mention the money. Today, Julia Roberts has an estimated net worth of $250 million.
This may also come as a surprise, but Roberts never thought she would become an actress, let alone one of the most successful in the world. She originally wanted to be a veterinarian and then decided to pursue journalism. It wasn’t until her older brother, actor Eric Roberts, started landing big roles in Hollywood that Julia Roberts decided to give it a try.
By the way, Eric Roberts has the most extensive IMDb history I’ve ever come across, with 699 credits to his name. That’s 10 times more than his sister. And yet his net worth pales in comparison, estimated to be $2 million. Hopefully little sis’ hosts the family get-togethers sometimes!
These days, Julia Roberts is still at it, despite the fact that she and her family could retire for generations to come. Her latest film was Ticket to Paradise (2022) and she has two more in production. She was also in the TV mini-series Gaslit this past year.
Roberts has three children with her second husband, Daniel Moder (married in 2002). They were originally named Hazel, Phinnaeus, and Henry. But after Roberts converted to the spiritual path of Hinduism in 2009, she renamed all her children: Laxmi, Ganesh, and Krishna Balram, respectively.
Fun fact: Julia Roberts’ character in Valentine’s Day, Captain Kate Hazeltine, was partially named after her daughter Hazel. Adorable!
