Bruce Willis became the face of action cinema in Hollywood at the end of the 80s thanks to Die Hard. The actor then chose his roles very carefully. In 1994, he not only took a massive pay cut for Quentin Tarantino’s cult film Pulp Fiction, but also settled for a fraction of his salary to work with one of his biggest acting idols.
Bruce Willis accepted minimum wage for the comedy Nobody’s Fool
Willis was seen in 1991 in Billy Bathgate – In the Wake of the Mafia, directed by Robert Benton. The drama would become one of Willis’ favorite films. As Benton the Die Hard star for his next project, the comedy Nobody’s Fool, asked, Willis said yes straight away – even though he had to expect a very low salary.
According to Willis, Benton explained (via Espinof): “It’s not like Billy Bathgate, we have no money. We’re making this film on the smallest possible budget.” Willis then replied: “Don’t worry about the money. Let’s have a good time.”
Watch the trailer for Nobody’s Fool here:
Movie Trailer – Nobody’s Fool
While Willis typically raked in around $15 million per film at this point, the film’s entire budget was only $20 million. Willis received no more than the actors’ union’s minimum wage, which Espinof said at the time $1,400 per week fraud. For the approximately four months of filming, Willis received less than $150,000 – less than 1 percent of his usual fee.
Bruce Willis really wanted to work with acting legend Paul Newman
The reason for the acceptance was not only because of director Robert Benton, but also because of the leading actor that Benton hired for his film. Accordingly, Paul Newman took the lead role in Nobody’s Fool – an actor whom Willis admired very much. In an interview with Playboy in 1996, Willis spoke highly of the Two Bandits star:
Paul Newman is amazing. He’s 70 years old and still trying new things with every take. A guy like him wouldn’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 laughing and making fun of each other.
However, Nobody’s Fool was not the first collaboration between Willis and Newman, as Willis himself is said to have reminded the actor on the set of the comedy. In 1982, the two appeared in front of the camera together in the drama The Verdict, where Willis can be seen as an extra in the background behind Newman during a court scene. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Willis Brought a VHS tape of the film to the set of Nobody’s Foolto show Paul Newman the scene.
If you want to watch Nobody’s Fool with Bruce Willis and Paul Newman for yourself, unfortunately you can’t find the film on any streaming platforms at the moment. However, Amazon offers the comedy for purchase on DVD. The Verdict, on the other hand, is available to buy or rent from various VoD providers such as Amazon, Apple TV and Magenta TV.
A thematically similar article appeared on our sister site Espinof.