When you look at the cast of Love Actually, you would imagine that a large amount of the film’s over £30 million production budget is just paying the star-studded cast behind it.
Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Freeman, Rowan Atkinson, the number of established British and Irish stars in the festive film is astounding.
That said, one member of the cast who wasn’t listed above was paid a huge amount for their appearance in the film and was done so to barely appear on screen.
Who do they play?
The cast member in question is Claudia Schiffer, and she plays the mother of one of Sam’s classmates.
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If you don’t remember, Sam is played by Thomas Brodie Sangster, and is the young hopeless romantic step-son of Liam Neeson’s Daniel.
After Sam’s mum dies, their plot in the film revolves around Daniel trying to care for Sam. And one subplot involves Daniel mentioning several times that he wants to date Claudia Schiffer, who is a supermodel.
After doing so the whole film, he meets one of the mothers of Sam’s classmates at the end of the film, only for her to be played by? Yep, Claudia Schiffer.
While she doesn’t play herself, it is a memorable cameo in which their characters hit it off.
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How much was she paid per second?
While my maths might be a bit rusty, the amount Schiffer was paid thankfully makes it pretty easy.
The supermodel appeared in just 60 seconds of the film. And according to Vogue magazine, she was paid $350,000 to appear in the film, which is around £275,000.
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For the less numerically savvy amongst you, that is about £4,500 per second, meaning she made the average salary for full time workers in the UK in roughly eight seconds.
This was revealed in How Much?!: The $1000 Omelette ... and 1100 Other Astonishing Money Moments by Andrew Holmes, in which he states she was paid $350,000 for the role.
If you ask me, it was worth it for the payoff, but starring cast member Emma Thompson actually spoke about being underpaid on the film.
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Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, she said when asked if she rewatches the film: "No. That was 20 years ago.
"You’re just saying, ‘I don’t think I was very well paid for that. There was that terrible trailer with the loo that really stank and had that sort of….’ That’s the things you remember, not the good ones."
Topics: Colin Firth, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin