13 Celebs Who Have Revealed How They Handle Their Money And Salaries, And I'm Surprised At A Lot Of These

"I want to know that I don’t have to take an acting job for two or three years if I don’t want to and that I’ll still be able to make my house and car payments."

Talking about money — especially salaries — is still a bit taboo. However, in recent years celebrities have been more candid than ever about either the pay gap in salaries or how they handle their finances.

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Last week, Euphoria actress, Sydney Sweeney made headlines when she opened up about her financial struggles and how exactly her salary is spent. This got me wondering which other celebrities have gotten personal about their finances. I did some digging and here is what others had to say about the topic.

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1. Sydney Sweeney opened up about not being able to afford to take time off of work.

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In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Sydney revealed how she wants to be a young mom but feels she can't afford to take off work. 

“If I wanted to take a six-month break, I don’t have income to cover that. I don’t have someone supporting me, I don’t have anyone I can turn to, to pay my bills or call for help," she said in the interview.

“I was worried that, if I don’t work, there is no money and no support for kids I would have,” Sydney continued. 

2. Dave Grohl revealed he is more on the frugal side with his money.

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Despite achieving much success in his career, the Foo Fighters front-man carefully watches his money. 

“It goes straight into my bank account, where it turns all moldy and smelly,” Dave said in an interview with The Red Bulletin. “I drive a family car — not a monster SUV but a family car that fits five people. I’ve got a house that is just big enough, too.”

According to CNBC, even when Grohl got his first credit card, he stayed frugal making his first card purchase at a Hibachi chain restaurant. 

3. Ellen Pompeo isn't afraid to discuss her high earnings in the hopes of inspiring other women to speak up for what they deserve.

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As most women feel when asking for a raise or negotiating a higher salary, actress Ellen worried about how she would look by asking for more money for her work on Grey's Anatomy. "But CAA compiled a list of stats for me, and Grey's has generated nearly $3 billion for Disney, " she said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. 

"When your face and your voice have been part of something that's generated $3 billion for one of the biggest corporations in the world, you start to feel like, 'OK, maybe I do deserve a piece of this,'" she continued. 

Those numbers — and mentorship from her boss, Shonda Rhimes — are what gave Ellen the confidence to ask for what she deserves making her, in 2017, dramatic television’s highest-earning actress, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

4. Kanye West admitted when he went into extreme debt.

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Six years ago, the rapper famously took to Twitter to reveal that he was $53 million in debt after launching his clothing brand, Yeezy. 

West used his own money to get his brand off the ground, which essentially caused him to fall into such severe debt. 

5. Ashley Greene revealed that she saves her paychecks so she doesn't have to take acting gigs for the sake of it.

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Actress Ashley Greene has also been an open book about how she rations her money until her next acting gig. 

According to CNBC, theTwilight actress saves her paychecks so she can pay her bills if she doesn’t get steady work. 

“I’m lucky because my dad taught me to be frugal and save,” she said in a 2012 Marie Claire interview. “And that’s important because I want to know that I don’t have to take an acting job for two or three years if I don’t want to and that I’ll still be able to make my house and car payments and buy food for my dogs.”

6. Issa Rae said she didn't know her worth as a freelancer when she was getting started in the industry.

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"As a freelance videographer and editor, I constantly had to set my price points, which was hard in the beginning because I honestly didn't know my worth," creator and star of HBO'S Insecure, Issa Rae said in an interview with The Root back in 2015.

"As I grew more confident in my work, I began to set my prices higher," Issa continued. "Sometimes I'd get resistance and sometimes I wouldn't get the job at all. I'd often have to convince them that I was worth the money."

7. Ed Sheeran divulged that he gives himself an allowance.

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"You never want to be wasteful,” singer Ed Sheeran told the Irish Examiner. ”[I use] my Barclays student account. I’ve not upgraded because I don’t spend much money. If I had all my money in one account, I would spend all of it, so I get an allowance.”

8. Hugo Weaving confessed to walking away from the Avengers franchise because he couldn't get the pay he wanted for it.

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English actor, Hugo Weaving, wasn't in the Avengers: Endgame movie because he couldn't get the pay he felt he deserved for the film.  

"They said, 'It’s just a voice job, it’s not a big deal.' I actually found negotiating with them through my agent impossible. And I didn’t really wanna do it that much. But I would have done it," Weaving said in a Time Out interview. 

9. Catt Sadler openly talked about walking away from her "dream job" after finding out her coworker was earning double her pay.

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Back in 2018, former E! News co-anchor Catt announced her decision on her website that she was leaving the network after finding out that her co-host, Jason Kennedy, was making almost double her salary.

Despite co-anchoring E! News being her dream job, Sadler said on her site that she decided to leave after E! did not budge on increasing her salary to be equal to Kennedy's. 

10. Michelle Williams took to Capitol Hill to discuss her experience with pay disparity in Hollywood.

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Actress Michelle Williams experienced pay disparity while working with Mark Wahlberg on All the Money in the World and the actress publicly spoke out about it on Capitol Hill back in 2019.

“In late 2017, the news broke that I’d been paid less than $1,000 compared to the $1.5 million that my male counterpart had received for the exact same amount of work,” she said at the time. 

“And guess what, no one cared. This came as no surprise to me, it simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality is not an inalienable right and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility at home," Michelle continued. 

11. Jennifer Lawrence spoke about how fickle the world of Hollywood can be when it comes to work and pay.

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Actor Jennifer Lawrence also spoke out about pay inequity in Hollywood when she found out that her male costars in American Hustle had been paid more than she had. However, instead of blaming the studios, she blamed herself.  

"I didn't fight hard enough. It was my own mentality that led me to believe that I didn't deserve to be paid equally," she said in a CBS News interview. 

She also spoke about how 'fickle' the world of Hollywood is. "If the next few movies don't-- don't do well in the box office, I won't-- I won't-- I won't get paid the same. That's the way it works," she continued in the interview. 

"If you can't prove that you-- that you deserve that number, then you're not gonna get it. So it's very fickle. So I don't want to sound like I'm on a high horse, 'cause I might be on a tiny little Shetland pony in a month," Jennifer added.

12. Patricia Arquette discussed money during her Oscars acceptance speech.

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"To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights, it's our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America," actress Patricia Arquette said in her 2015 Oscars acceptance speech.

Despite her efforts on Capitol Hill in 2016 — where she joined US Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) on Equal Pay Day to discuss the wage gap between men and women in the US — Arquette said in a 2018 interview with The Daily Beast that she was still experiencing being offered less pay than her male co-stars causing her to "walk away from several jobs." 

13. Bryce Dallas Howard got candid about how intimidated she would get during salary negotiations.

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"I've been [wimpy] about it in the past. I didn't want people to think I wasn't grateful for opportunities," actress Bryce Dallas Howard said in a Glamour interview. "I also get scared off by every threat during a negotiation. They'll say, 'We'll just have to find someone else,' and I back off. You can't do that."