Christine Taylor revealed she made only $3,500 per episode when she starred on the beloved Nickelodeon series “Hey Dude.”
During an appearance on “The Secret World of Alex Mack” actress Natanya Ross’ “We’re Still Here, Babe” podcast Wednesday, Taylor opened up about the surprisingly low paycheck she received for playing Melody Hanson throughout the comedy series’ five-season run from 1989 to 1991.
“By the time ‘Hey Dude’ ended, we had this discussion amongst our castmates, and everyone seemed to think [that] by the last season, we were making $5,000 an episode,” she said. “No, we were making $3,500 an episode, I’m pretty sure, because they would bump us up $500 every season.”
The “Hey Dude” cast included Taylor, David Brisbin, Kelly Brown, Debra Kalman, David Lascher, Joe Torres, Geoffrey Coy, Jonathan Galkin and Josh Tygiel on the series.
Taylor told Ross, 44, that she and her co-stars earned the same salary.
“Everyone in their brain was like, ‘$5,000.’ I was like, ‘No way, no way. That would have … no, it did not happen,” Taylor added. “I did not make $5,000 on something for many, many years.”
The “Zoolander” actress said she was “smart about saving the money” she earned, while also acknowledging that her family helped support her along the way.
“It wasn’t like you get to LA, you start working and suddenly you’re on the scene,” she explained. “I had to watch what I was eating, and I was going to the laundromat, and it was work. It was work, figuring it out.”
Taylor recently revealed that she was asked to lose 10 pounds for her role as Marcia Brady in 1995’s “The Brady Bunch Movie.”
She landed the audition after receiving an “out of the blue” message from original “Brady Bunch” creator Sherwood Schwartz, who told her he wanted to meet with her about the film.
The “Dodgeball” star described being asked to lose weight as “so ’90s” and reflective of a “very different time in the industry.”
“Of course, I was embarrassed when that ask came my way,” she admitted, while noting that such a demand “would never happen today.”
Taylor and her husband, Ben Stiller, tied the knot in May 2000 after meeting on the set of “Heat Vision and Jack.”
They separated in May 2017, but rekindled their relationship and reconciled in February 2022.
Taylor and Stiller share two children — daughter Ella, 24, and son Quinlin, 21.
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