Oh, how the entertainment industry robs its talent of due earnings. Skew it however you'd like, the business behind it all is ruthless and gut-wrenching.
But you knew that already.
For actor Barkhad Abdi--after his breakout role in Captain Phillips opposite castaway Tom Hanks--his earnings from the majorly successful motion picture have left him, get this, dead broke.
With a budget confirmed at a $55 million, one would think Abdi raked in some serious cash, right?
Wrong. Abdi was paid a mere $65,000.
Granted, most breakout actors are paid an advance of profits, which have to be recouped. So, sadly, Abdi's working wage is about average.
To be fair, Hanks and real-life specialist director Paul Greengrass took hits, too. In fact, their paycuts were crucial to getting the film made (I guess the story behind the dramatization was worth more than its monetary value).
According to the New Yorker, Abdi's life post-Cap'n Phil has been less than ideal, even with talks of a lead role in a new film about South African marathon legend Willie Mtolo:
"When Abdi is in Los Angeles to promote the film, he subsists on a per diem, good at the Beverly Hilton, where the studio likes to put him up. The town car is available only for official publicity events. His clothes are loaners. Recently Abdi requested that he be allowed to stay at a commuter hotel near LAX to be closer to his friend, a Somali cabdriver from Minneapolis, who shuttles him around for free."
With all the negative PR surfacing about Abdi's lack of basic accommodations, surely Sony Pictures will step in and provide the actor with a huge bonus--one hopes, at least. Like most who are publicly outed for their indecency (see every politician ever), a good proctor tries to correct it.
While the story of Abdi in Hollywood takes no prisoners, it's just another addition to the statistical analysis that Hollywood (and probably every industry to stem from the entertainment web) are cutthroat sharks who care little for problems seemingly "beneath" them.
Watch here as Abdi, himself, "becomes the captain" in Captain Phillips.
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