“They never paid me a dime”: Tiffany Haddish reveals she was never paid for her first movie

Tiffany Haddish is a big name in Hollywood right now, but just a few years back, the actor saw her fair share of struggle. She starred in a movie before Girls Trip and was promised a payment of $1200. However, she never received any compensation for it.

The Girls Trip breakout star revealed in an interview with the Associated Press how not being in the union and working in a non-union movie meant she could barely do a thing when the production gave her 10 DVDs of the film she acted in and asked her to sell them.

Amidst the growing concerns about actors’ compensation amid the SAG-AFTRA strike, Tiffany Haddish recalled how she had to crawl her way up by doing movies that barely paid and some that did not at all. She shared:

“My very first movie I ever did that I was the star in, I was homeless while I was shooting that movie,...They were supposed to pay me $1,200 to do the movie. I wasn’t in the union. It was non union film so there was nothing I could do about it. They never paid me. They never paid me a dime. The producers gave me 10 DVDs and said, ‘Sell those. Good luck.’ I never saw the movie.”

She added:

“Then ‘Girls Trip’ comes out in 2017,...That movie is all over BET, VH1…this network, this streaming. It’s everywhere that movie! I don’t get a dime. It’s the second worst movie I was ever in. Not a penny.”

This experience shaped the actress for the future, who also discussed how she went on to try and create wealth following this.

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“I’m still afraid of being poor again.”: Tiffany Haddish on earning and managing finances

Tiffany Haddish had a breakout moment not only in fame, but she also received a generous $80,000 paycheck for Girls Trip, which the actress reportedly used to pay off the house she bought after the first season of The Carmichael Show. She took this step to ensure she did not remain homeless.

She revealed that because of her earlier experiences of homelessness, she continues to buy properties and lands whenever a movie gets her excellent money. Tiffany Haddish said:

“I started trying to figure out how to create generational wealth. The fastest way to do it and the first way you should go about doing it is buy some land,...So before we even got into Season 2 of ‘The Carmichael Show,’ I bought a house. Everybody told me I should wait, but I didn’t care. I just knew I was going to have to always make enough money to take care of me and the house, and that’s what I did.”

She added:

“Between that show’s next season, the ‘Keanu’ movie, and making sure I can live comfortably off of $500 a month, I was able to pay off half the house. The ‘Girls Trip’ check was the final check. People told me to spend it in other ways, but I used it to pay off the house because I was always afraid of being homeless again. Now I have a surplus of money.”

Tiffany Haddish may appear again in the proposed sequel to Girls Trip. Universal Pictures has yet to announce any official statement regarding the sequel, although director Malcom D. Lee has had plans for it since 2017.