If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do with a Hollywood payday, here’s what 16 actors splurged on when they got their bag for the first time.
From buying "lemons" to a good 'ol Chicago dog, there's quite a range of what these actors splurged on once payday came. The answers are pretty interesting.
1. Timothée Chalamet told GQ he nabbed his first big paycheck from a "Disney commercial," and like a true New Yorker, his first splurge was on "nosebleed Knicks season tickets." Unfortunately, it was the year that fans thought LeBron James would come to New York, but instead, he headed to Miami, which threw a wrench in his hopes for the team. Timothée then shared he had to spend afternoons trying to sell off the tickets after school.
2. Selena Gomez bought a "Louis Vuitton laptop bag" with her "first big check," she told Harper's Bazaar. Except, instead of flaunting her designer goods around, she revealed she was so "scared" that she was going to "mess it up." She reflected on how she pretended she was a "little businesswoman who needed to carry all her important things," but really, it held her "lip gloss" and "laptop."
3. Jennifer Aniston told Pop Sugar that her first splurge turned out to be a bad investment. She said, “My first big splurge was on a Mercedes that had a ‘for sale’ sign on it for almost two years." She had frequently passed by the "little white 280 SL Mercedes" on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles before she finally bought it. "I always was like, ‘I can’t wait, someday, someday [I’ll buy it].’ And one day, I bought it, and then I drove it and then drove it again, and it never drove again,” Jennifer recalled. "It was a lemon, and that’s why it had been sitting there. And I didn’t know any better to get it checked out, so that was just a nice 25-year-old mistake.”
4. Prior to Sylvester Stallone's breakout role in Rocky, he was once a struggling actor. In fact, times were so hard that Sylvester once had to sell his beloved bullmastiff, Butkus, to an acquaintance for $50, he told Shortlist. But when he sold the Rocky script, he went to see his friend and "begged" for his dog back. However, his friend refused, telling Sylvester that his kids now loved the dog, and even threatened to fight the actor. Fortunately, there was a happy ending — albeit, an expensive one. "[Several] threats later," Sylvester ended up paying "$3,000" for Butkus, who went on to star in Rocky and Rocky 2 with Sylvester.
5. When Cardi B first broke on to the scene, she shared with WE tv that she splurged on a $60,000 Patek Philippe watch. "I probably could have put a down payment on a car, but you know what, like people was telling me, you gonna make it back," she said. "Everybody's telling me, 'Like yo, you a rapper, you gotta shine, you gotta bust it!" It worked out in the end, she added, because when she first met frequent collaborators, Migos, they were "very impressed" with her bling.
6. For Stranger Things star Joe Keery, his first purchase was very low-key — all he wanted was a hot dog. "A Chicago dog," Joe told Entertainment Tonight. "I went back home to Chicago, and I went to The Wieners Circle and got a hot dog. A Chicago dog."
7. John Boyega spilled on the Graham Norton Show what he bought with his Star Wars paychecks, and it’s, uh, a collection of oddities. Included in some of John’s purchases: two lion sculptures that sit on the edges of his bed, a saxophone lamp, a Spartan-inspired helmet, and a small metal knight that dispenses toilet paper. “I’m just a big fan of weird things,” shrugged John.
8. When Emma Watson's Harry Potter paychecks came in, her spending was very down-to-earth. She bought herself a car — and nope, it wasn't something flashy, or particularly speedy. She bought herself a "sensible" Prius. "I got my license last year, and I love the Prius," she told Interview. "And, to be fair, it’s not the prettiest car on the road, but it’s good for the environment," she said. "It’s sensible and boring — like me." And in addition to the Prius, she also bought herself a "laptop" and took her dad on a holiday to Tuscany.
9. Harry Potter series costar Daniel Radcliffe, like Emma, is also low-key when it comes to splurges. He told CNN, "The things I like buying are things that cost about 10 pounds — books and CDs and DVDs." When the actor turned 18, and had access to his Harry Potter paychecks, he revealed to Sky News, “The only time I will spend a wad of cash in one go — and this is going to sound so nerdy — is in bookshops. I’ve gone out of bookshops with a pile of 15 to 20 books before — it’s excessive." Daniel added, "The only slightly lavish thing that I do sometimes is that I might take all my friends out for a night out. And that's, like, once a year. I'm refreshingly boring."
10. The final member of the Harry Potter trio, Rupert Grint, spilled on what he first splurged on for the Armchair Expert podcast, and his answer was very...unique. "It was quite overwhelming, like I literally did not know what to do," Rupert shared. "I bought a hovercraft and an ice cream van," he answered. "That was my first car." But that wasn't it, the most interesting part, Rupert revealed: "I went through a phase with loads of animals. I had alpacas, pigs, yeah, it was a whole thing. I think I was 16..." He added, "It was chaos. Alpacas are insane."
11. In an interview with ShortList, Tom Hiddleston revealed his first splurge was a car — a Peugeot 106 1.1 that he had for "10 years" and "drove it around France and Spain." But he later revealed to Bustle that his first splurge was later wrecked by "joy-riders." The car was "sadly stolen" and "impounded" and "wrecked by some joy-riders in London."
12. Oprah Winfrey shared on Oprah Daily what her splurge was when she received her first million-dollar check. "The thing that I splurged on was really good towels," she said. "I love great towels. Towels that are so big and fluffy you could wrap yourself, your whole body in... I splurged on really good, fluffy Ralph Lauren towels."
13. Awkwafina has starred in films about crazy amounts of money, but surprisingly, she revealed she's not much of a spender. However, she did once treat herself to a "Gucci handbag and Ableton software," she told iNews. And she makes an exception, but only when it comes to karaoke. She shared with the Huffington Post, "I don’t splurge on literally anything, except for karaoke nights." She said, "If I’m treating, like, a whole group of friends. I’ll drop, like, 3 G’s on a group night of karaoke, but for myself? No!" She further explained, "These pants are from Target, dude! What my Grandma instilled in me is an anxiety that it’s going to be gone."
14. When Kerry Washington booked the classic film, Save the Last Dance, she saved up her per diem — a daily allowance given for living expenses when traveling for work — and bought herself a laptop. Kerry told the Hollywood Reporter, "I couldn’t believe somebody was handing me cash, and I literally used to hide it under my mattress for the whole movie. I put myself on a tight budget of what I could spend. And at the end of it, I used all the cash from the three months and bought my first laptop."
15. Tom Cruise shared on theGraham Norton Show that with his first ever paychecks, he put family first. "I paid for my sister's college education," shared Tom. "And then I bought my other sister a car."
16. In the same interview, Tom's Mission: Impossible — Fallout costar Henry Cavill shared for his first splurge, he wanted to treat himself to a new car. (Like Tom Hiddleston, Henry also drove a Peugeot.) When he and his father visited a garage shop, an Audi R8 caught Henry's eye, but an even nicer car caught his dad's eye — an Aston Martin DBS. Well, long story short, Henry ended up purchasing the nicer option, which clocks in at around $333,686, according to Car and Driver. "So, that was my second car," said Henry. "That's quite a trajectory," joked Graham.
What would be your splurge? See you in the comments!
