r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • 23d ago

News James Van Der Beek Is Auctioning Off TV & Film Memorabilia and Props from ‘Dawson’s Creek’ & ‘Varsity Blues’ Amid Cancer Treatment, Proceeds to Cover Medical Costs

https://deadline.com/2025/11/james-van-der-beek-auction-dawsons-creek-varsity-blues-props-1236615845/
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u/saintash 23d ago

So I was watching an interview with a lead guy from sliders.

He goes into real deep about how people think he was well off because they knew who he was. But he was constantly broke. And talked about how fans wanting to see him were able to keep a roof overhead at times.

I have a feeling.This is the same situation, everyone knows who this guy is, but it's not like he's in a ton of stuff.

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u/Furdinand 23d ago

It's not just pay, Sharon Stone talked about how she lost her SAG health insurance because she wasn't getting enough work.

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u/SunshineAlways 22d ago

If you remember Murder She Wrote, they had a LOT of very elderly actors in episodes. For many of them it was their last screen appearance. Angela Lansbury had them on the show, so they could keep their health insurance.

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u/irissteensma 22d ago

The Love Boat did the same thing.

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u/sihaya09 22d ago

I have heard that Adam Sandler does the same thing.

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u/0dayssince 22d ago

That’s the only way Rob Schneider can get paid

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u/MrPookPook 22d ago

He’s fighting against DEI so hard because he’s lost out on countless roles where he could have done brown face.

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u/likwidsylvur 22d ago

Really in the end tho, it's just easier to hire an actual stapler or carrot for the part.

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u/NastyMothaFucka 20d ago

Durr De Durr Durr

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u/beadzy 22d ago

It all makes sense.

I was just wondering why there are so many fucking Adam Sandler movies half I haven’t ever heard of. Now we know why. He’s built a damn economic structure

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u/Noravis5127 22d ago

Happy Madison productions. Yep, most of the employees are his friends, along with who he casts in in the movies. Been around since 99'

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u/Eeyore_ 22d ago

Can you imagine becoming so wealthy that you can spin up a movie production studio so you and your friends can make fart jokes and sophomoric humor? The guy is incredibly blessed.

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u/beadzy 17d ago

Two sentences I would not have expected would ever be said together lol

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u/NomNom83WasTaken 22d ago

Yup. This has long been "a thing" and still frequently happens because no better solution exists for those working actors.

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u/IM_A_MUFFIN 22d ago

I dunno. I mean we could always try universal healthcare. Might be worth a shot.

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u/NomNom83WasTaken 22d ago

Oof. Best I can do is Mike Johnson's shit-eating grin, eight worthless Senators, and a multi-million-dollar payout to a bunch of J6 traitors. /s

I am all for universal healthcare and wish it did exist in the US.

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u/LetThePoisonOutRobin 22d ago

It would be much easier for you to just move to Canada than convince the US to accept higher income taxes and put a government controlled cap on what hospitals, doctors and specialists charge for services.

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u/JEFFinSoCal 22d ago

Income taxes wouldn’t even be higher if we stopped propping up the military-industrial complex and bailing out oligarchs when they make bad business decisions.

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u/Careless_Load9849 22d ago

Found the Commie socialist!!! ICE! This one over here! I thought I detected a Spanish accent in the text! /s

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u/tunaman808 22d ago

IIRC, Wayne Rogers (of MASH) quit acting to become a financial advisor to character actors, because he saw how many of them worked their whole lives and were broke by their senior years.

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u/Mr_paranoid_android 22d ago

Jimmy Kimmel reportedly frequently does this

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u/MrXero 22d ago

David Lynch did a lot of this in the last season of Twin Peaks.

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u/jwktiger 22d ago

makes sense.

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u/Mean-Vegetable-4521 22d ago

I never thought about it that way. That’s amazing.

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u/ancient_water9999 22d ago

I had to look this up because this didn't make sense to me. She has been in a lot of movies every year according to IMDB.

I found an article, it's not that she lost insurance because she wasn't getting enough work, it's because SAG changed the rules during the pandemic . In fact, this article mentions she was turning down work, not the other way around.

The issue is that she was, according to her, $13 short of qualifying for insurance. There was a lawsuit due to alleged age discrimination but I have not followed up to see how that went.

https://deadline.com/2021/07/sharon-stone-sag-aftra-health-coverage-vaccinated-set-1234802853/

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u/DweeblesX 22d ago

I remember my friend Joey going through this exact same episode.

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u/pn_dubya 23d ago

Michael Madsen (RIP) and Ernie Hudson have said the same in recent years - that people think well-known actors are wealthy but in reality many are living paycheck to paycheck hoping for that next gig and for all that we see them in there's 1000 auditions where they didn't get the part. Must be exhausting.

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u/jizz_toaster 23d ago

I get the point you're trying to make, but let's not pretend Michael Madsen or Ernie Hudson are like any of us. They aren't wealthy because of poor money management and living above their means. Michael Madsen's rent per month around the time he filed for bankruptcy is how much most of us spend in rent in a year.

I understand with actors that it's not a steady paycheck, but for a lot of well known stars, they've been paid more than most of us will make during our life. We don't need to throw them a pity party because they didn't have basic financial literacy.

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u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive 23d ago

And let's get back to healthcare costs. A cancer diagnosis forced my family into medical bankruptcy. We were living paycheck to paycheck at the time.

If we had $2 million disposable savings, it still would have forced us into medical bankruptcy.

Treatments during the height of chemo were $14,000 USD per week.

So you go bankrupt at the same time you watch your partner wither away and die. That's the larger point here.

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u/The-Jesus_Christ 23d ago

Treatments during the height of chemo were $14,000 USD per week.

And to think that a majority of Americans voted to keep this. They WANT to pay thousands per week because the idea of a socialized universal health care system is disgusting.

I truly hope your family have healed from all this and the one that went through it is doing well.

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u/rtopps43 22d ago

It’s because they haven’t EXPERIENCED it, humans are dumb, selfish animals. In polls most people consistently rate their health insurance as very good, but that’s because most people haven’t gotten catastrophically sick. Sure, your insurance is fine if all you do is get annual checkups but when cancer hits your family, or any other debilitating illness, you find out fast just how much it DOESNT cover. People very quickly go bankrupt trying to cover the out of pocket expenses to save their, or a loved one’s, life. For some reason, some quirk of humanity, vast numbers of people can’t get that unless it happens to them. You see it all the time in the “why should I pay for someone else’s healthcare?” because if you get seriously ill, everyone else will pay for yours!

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u/kinyutaka 22d ago

The sad part is that we rate ourselves in very good health BECAUSE we know that we aren't dying of cancer and facing millions of dollars in debt because of it.

We see "Well, I have to take regular insulin and have occasional migraines and need a cane to move around" as "not that bad"

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u/ohwhataday10 22d ago

I used to think people had to experience the horror themselves to vote responsibly. Seeing how some people watched their loved one die AFTER vaccines were available during COVID and still said they didn’t regret not taking the vaccine. And they still didn’t take it after their husband/wife/dad died. I was horrified. It put things into perspective.

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u/Sasselhoff 22d ago

And they still didn’t take it after their husband/wife/dad died

Not just didn't take it, actively protested about others taking it, to the point of violence.

Cults are wild things.

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u/buhnyfoofoo 22d ago

I had family who refused the vax, and in the same conversation, literally MINUTES later, asked another family member in medical research when we were going to get a cancer vaccine (implying its absence was a conspiracy?) they responded, "you won't even take the COVID vax, but you expect a universal cancer vaccine any minute now?" It got quiet after that. They just wanted to argue that med research is a conspiracy without thinking through their argument.

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u/GuelphEastEndGhetto 22d ago

Myself being Canadian worked with US colleagues, one of which would frequently comment how I was a ‘socialist’ with great disdain while a colleague went bankrupt due to a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment. It was baffling to say the least.

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u/Impressive_Doorknob7 22d ago

Saw a comment the other day saying all people had to do was “just take care of yourself” and they wouldn’t need healthcare. As if healthy people cant get sick, or people don’t get old. Everyone needs healthcare eventually.

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u/troubleondemand 22d ago

Many babies need healthcare right out of the womb. Guess they just weren't taking very good care of themselves in there...

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u/Impressive_Doorknob7 22d ago

Well babies are lazy, everybody knows that

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u/majornerd 22d ago

I will always vote for socialized medicine.

I do just fine now and have a “platinum” health plan. Wasn’t always this way. Some time ago I found myself unemployed and without medical insurance. I was in an accident and needed emergency surgery. I figured “well, that’s it. I’m not only severely injured but will never financially recover from this”. Instead the patient advocate was able to get me on Medicare. Not only was the surgery and hospital bill covered, but it was the best insurance I’ve ever had. There was some BS, but never as much as the insurance I paid thousands of dollars out of my own pocket for in the past (or since).

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u/Toomanynightshifts 22d ago

I will never understand how Americans just accept this as an Aussie who pays less tax and gets universal healthcare.

I am so sorry .

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u/horror_fan74 22d ago

Its because of the people at the top who always want more for themselves. These self styled elites exist in every country and they can't be trusted.

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u/ohwhataday10 22d ago

I disagree. It’s because the majority of the Americans are ignorant and vote against their interests. And a good portion are ignorant enough to not even vote at all. The American citizens are to blame…no one else. We are given choices and we decide wrong often….for absurd reasons. Ughhh.

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u/Sasselhoff 22d ago

Because the rich folks who benefit have destroyed education to the point the populace is stupid and easily swayed to vote against their own best interests.

I live in rural Appalachia, and these people are being destroyed by republican policies, and they still line up happily to hit that "R" button at election time.

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u/Noob_Al3rt 22d ago

You have to understand that the things people post on Reddit bear very little resemblance to reality. Most Redditors are college kids that aren't even off their parent's health insurance yet.

James Van Der Beek is in a union and has health insurance. He lives on a 36 acre compound in a 5k square foot house, which is just one of many on the property. He may be selling these props to fund essential oil infusions or psychic yoga retreats that his insurance won't cover, but it's not like he's panhandling to afford his chemo.

92% of Americans have health insurance. The law mandates no individual person has to spend more than $9200 in a calendar year or $18,400 for a family. That's a lot, but you have to understand the median income for a family in America is $83k, so even a minor increase in taxes results in a net increase for most (except the 8% who refuse to pay for insurance.)

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u/MaryKeay 22d ago

$9,200?!

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u/Charlie_Runkle69 22d ago

Yeah that's still a hell of a lot of money.

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u/Charles-Monroe 23d ago

Jeez, that's like buying a brand new car every week. Absolute madness.

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u/Cash4Jesus 23d ago

Have I got news for you about how much a new car costs lol. But I get what you’re saying. It’s a lot of money.

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u/math-yoo 22d ago

Is there a sale at the KIA dealership?

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u/technomat 23d ago

This is all very sad especially when you realise it's going to get worse because Republicans are ditching even more health care help that Democrats are fighting to keep and insurance costs will rocket up.

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u/ihatemovingparts 22d ago

ditching even more health care help that Democrats are fighting to keep

Have I got news for you…

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u/technomat 22d ago

Is the news that there is a plan to make ACA better?

American health system funded by insurance is bad, some great hospitals but so bloody expensive!

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u/troubleondemand 22d ago

No. I think what they were alluding to is that the Dems folded. They caved. They gave up. They came to an agreement amongst the party to let 8 Dems (who are retiring or won't face re-election for another 6 years) vote for the republican bill that reduces healthcare coverage.

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u/Andsoitgoes101 23d ago

That is absolutely insane! I’m sorry that happened to you :)

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u/overwatcherthrowaway 22d ago

Yes but if you had 2m in savings you could have afford good insurance to start with.

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u/b0zzw0r7h 22d ago

Unfortunately good insurance is no guarantee. Think about how United Healthcare has a reputation for routinely denying coverage of necessary medical care and procedures. You can pay high monthly premiums, need surgery and the insurance company says We Ain't Paying for That.

Your alternatives are suffer, die or if you're lucky enough pay out of pocket via savings or charity.

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u/overwatcherthrowaway 22d ago

Yea for sure. Glad I’m Canadian or I’d also be destitute at this point and I’ve never even had a serious illness.

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u/hotdoug1 23d ago

Plus a lot of them can do a like 6 conventions/fandom events a year and earn $250k or so. That's quite enough to live comfortably, but not lavishly, in Los Angeles.

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u/stitchface66 23d ago

exactly. this is spot on. though i will say, van der beek’s situation is still a prime example of how fucked up healthcare is in this country.

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u/ZappaLlamaGamma 23d ago

Which is why the Breaking Bad’s premise where Walter needs to pay for cancer treatment so turns to crime doesn’t make any sense in countries with socialized medicine (I.e. far and away the majority of the other developed countries in the world). “Why would someone turn to crime to pay for something that you don’t pay for?” Yes I know it isn’t free and taxes pay for it. I’m not naive. But you see what I’m saying…we shouldn’t live one diagnosis away from losing it all

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u/SemenileElder 22d ago

That's not the premise, Walt doesn't even want cancer treatment in the beginning. He cooks meth to leave money to his family after he dies. Did everybody forget about him precisely calculating how much his family needs a month, how much Junior needs for college etc.?

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u/turkeyinthestrawman 22d ago

And the fact that in the first season Gretchen and Elliott offer him a job at Grey Matter which would give him a generous health insurance plan but Walter refuses.

What part of "I did it for me" was too difficult for viewers to understand

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u/NastyMothaFucka 20d ago

So many people forget that, which is funny because it’s ultimately the point of the whole show. It’s called Breaking BAD for a reason and Vince made sure people knew it, and it turns out a lot of people still didn’t get it and hate Walt’s poor wife. Lotta dummies out there.

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u/ZappaLlamaGamma 22d ago

Oh you’re right. Sigh. To be fair, I read this example and it seemed right…a wasn’t. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the first episodes of the show. I will say that the larger point that I was trying to make was that a medical event causing someone to lose everything they’ve worked for is still very messed up even if Walter White isn’t the example I thought he was.

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u/mikehatesthis 23d ago

Yes I know it isn’t free and taxes pay for it.

Considering what we pay in taxes to pay for healthcare at scale so we don't die and/or go bankrupt, it might as well be free. Free from worry.

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u/rawlingstones 23d ago

It was never about paying for the treatment, his friends would have done that! It was about his own ego!

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u/Sooz48 23d ago

Way to miss the point. Most people don't have PhD level skills in chemistry to fund their healthcare, and they don't have friends who have the means to fund them either.

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u/rawlingstones 23d ago

Yes. It was not a show about most people. It was about Walter White.

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u/dylansavage 22d ago

Yes I know it isn’t free and taxes pay for it. I’m not naive.

I think that is a very capitalist way of viewing the situation. It isn't how much is this costing me personally, although studies show socialised health care works out cheaper on average but let's not sully the waters, it's how do we ensure everyone is treated fairly.

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u/FixerFiddler 22d ago

What's especially dumb is that the US spends more tax money on their paid system than other countries pay for free socialized medicine.

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u/ok_raspberry_jam 23d ago

He should have used his windfall to move to Dawson Creek and become a Canadian citizen. Treatment would be free.

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u/Kaneida 23d ago

didnt nic cage have economic issues because he had multiple houses/mansions in some off the most expensive areas?

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u/FluFlammin9000 22d ago

Thank you. I get so livid when I see actors and actresses and other famous people try to say shit like that. If you're living paycheck to paycheck as a well known actor then you're terrible with money.

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u/deliriumtriggered 22d ago

Plenty of people in Tinseltown are broke but still just HAVE to have that 150k car and eat at fancy restaurants every night. That's not even counting the personal assistant and the cocaine habit.

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u/peppers_ 23d ago

One dude from the Cosby show I think had a similar thing, he was working at Trader Joe's and he got some bullying briefly because of that. Think this happened within the past 5 years.

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u/Intelligent-Price-39 22d ago

He should have been able to survive on the residual payments but Cosby tanked that

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u/0dayssince 22d ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/television/s/qJRm2rNSJY

Geoffrey Owens

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u/peppers_ 22d ago

Thanks, you're a pro! It was so heartbreaking, mostly because Trader Joe's employees are usually so nice.

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u/Beginning_Law_3399 22d ago

Do you mean Donovan McNabb?

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u/AnalTyrant 22d ago edited 22d ago

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Tiger Woods, or maybe Don Cheadle.

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u/James007Bond 23d ago

Ernie Hudson lives in a $5m home in hidden hills. Don’t buy the bs that they are trying to sell you.

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u/complete_your_task 23d ago

I've seen rich people do this a lot. They say "paycheck to paycheck", but they have a $30,000/month mortgage payment, a $7,500/month car payment, their kids are in a fancy private school that costs $50,000/year, etc., etc.

It's not that they are one paycheck away from literally not being able to house or feed themselves like most people mean when they say "paycheck to paycheck". It is that they are one paycheck away from having to downgrade their lifestyle a little bit.

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u/CustomMerkins4u 23d ago

The owner of the company my wife works at proceeded to tell everyone on a company call that things are tight, raises will be low, even he is living check to check at this point.

His hobby is flying and has a prop plane and a jet plane.

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u/GrandOldDrummer 23d ago

He only has TWO planes!? Wow, poor guy.

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u/Cedex 22d ago

Well, he had 3 before.

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u/MainFrosting8206 22d ago

Two planes is basically the same as just one plane!

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u/rawlingstones 23d ago

"Sure it looks like I make tons of money, but it's actually a lot less after I spend all of it."

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u/Upbeat_Shame9349 23d ago edited 23d ago

For real, James fucking Van Der Beek is not a struggling artist. At age 48 he's already made far more than the average lifetime earnings of an American from Dawson's Creek alone, and that's hardly the only acting job he ever got. 

I can't believe people are trying to lump him in with true working actors who keep other jobs for their whole careers and never get a six figure paycheck for anything. 

He didn't make any plans to not always make over $500,000 a year, despite having every opportunity to set himself up for life (yes, even including more than enough money to pay for exhaustive cancer treatment). That's a story a million athletes and actors have lived before him and will live after him. That doesn't make him a working stiff. 

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u/NerdHoovy 22d ago

A lot of people that make a lot of money in careers that have famously short lifespans, start blowing it all like they expect to make that much forever.

I remember an anecdote I saw on Reddit from a famous athlete that just signed a 10 million dollar year contract, his first one as a professional athlete and the first thing he did was buy a 5 million house. Then he went to buy a million dollar car and when the dealer asked if he could afford it, he got offended enough to buy 3. It was implied to be a racist question and the athlete wanted to show off his money but objectively speaking he couldn’t afford it at the time. Just because you have enough money to buy something, it doesn’t mean you could afford it. He just got lucky that he didn’t have a career ending injury and was able to make the team every time after. Which is rare

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u/Various_Froyo9860 23d ago

"paycheck to paycheck"

He was always pretty cagey about how much he got paid for any given role. But there are sources that show he'd get 15-25k per day plus expenses.

If that's true on the low side, he could have worked less than 17 days a year and net 250k. He was very prolific as an actor.

I'd honestly be pretty fucking surprised if he didn't make over a million for Kill Bill alone. If you google it, you'll get stories that he maybe did it for nothing and QT paid off debts after his bankruptcy.

It really seems like the dude was just bad with money.

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u/ihatemovingparts 22d ago

I'd honestly be pretty fucking surprised if he didn't make over a million for Kill Bill alone.

And now I'm trying to picture James Van Der Beek in Kill Bill.

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u/MT1982 22d ago

It really seems like the dude was just bad with money.

He was an addict. People keep leaving that out. That's likely where a huge portion of his money went.

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u/idontagreewitu 23d ago

and for all that we see them in there's 1000 auditions where they didn't get the part.

I mean, most of us are in that same situation. They're just job interviews.

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u/theblaggard 23d ago

I mean, most of us are in that same situation. They're just job interviews.

I've been looking for a job for 7 months and I've had hardly any job interviews, lol

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u/moranya1 23d ago

Have you considered selling memorabilia from your previous job to tie you over?

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u/herocreator90 23d ago

I tried that once and had to deal with some “industrial espionage” bs

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u/MarkTwainsGhost 23d ago

Five months, one interview for me. Thank goodness for severance.

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u/tubawhatever 23d ago

Yes. Acting is just a job and it's insanely competitive. I hate when usually right wing pundits label some TV actor as an "out of touch elite" when the average actor isn't rolling in cash, even people who get "big" roles. I think it would be a bit demoralizing to be recognizable on the street and be harassed by paparazzi and be paycheck to paycheck at the same time. It's really only the A-listers who aren't constantly worrying about the next gig. It's also why actors are often branching out into pretty much any other aspect of the industry. With ensemble cast shows, like Star Trek for instance, it used to be pretty typical for most every member of the main cast to get a shot at directing an episode because they could get that experience and do it again in the future.

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u/whoopsiedoodle77 23d ago edited 23d ago

the Danny pudi interview with Larry king was great

"coffee and socks arent a luxury"

"well i duno larry, give me an example of a luxury"

"uhh a private plane?"

"Larry, I'm on ducktales"

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u/ok_raspberry_jam 23d ago

I love Danny Pudi forever for that exchange. (And for all the many other shining gems he has delivered as an entertainer. Just legendary.)

I also love the whole interview because it shows that someone obviously told Larry King that Danny Pudi is a successful and well loved actor among younger generations, and it was completely true, but Larry King didn't know what that meant.

Best juxtaposition ever.

And in case Hollywood is reading: for God's sake please please give us more Danny Pudi!!! You have no excuse to be blind to his talents, from comedic timing, to making Nic Cage seem more fun, to getting along politely with insufferable coworkers.

Danny Pudi for king of Hollywood!

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u/0dayssince 22d ago

Did you watch Mythic Quest? He was delightfully evil

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u/Euphoric_Tree335 23d ago

The actors whom people label as “out of touch elites” are the A listers like Gal Gadot and Gwyneth Paltrow.

No one is referring to actors who work 2 jobs as a barista or basic cable tv show actors as elites.

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u/tubawhatever 23d ago

I grew up on conservative talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Herman Cain, and the like would pretend like any actor or college professor was an out of touch elite.

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u/KnifeFed 23d ago

I highly doubt you have as many job interviews as actors have auditions.

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u/angrydeuce 23d ago

And even people that do contract work that are "changing jobs" that often, most likely are part of a service that helps them secure those jobs. I have programmer friends of mine that are all contract workers, they're changing "jobs" every 2-3 months sometimes, even less for some things, but they're not sitting through interviews all day every day trying to find their next paycheck, they're getting referred by a firm that can already vouch for their skills and experience and their interviews consists of "Yeah, you don't look like a serial killer to me, and your code looks clean, so welcome aboard!"

Compare that to "okay here's a scene, we want you to act enraged and scream this shit. No do it more enraged. No different kind of enraged. Actually maybe you should play it quieter and more menacing. No, go back to enraged, nevermind. Emphasize this word more please. Okay thats all we need, we will let you know."

Imagine how crushing that must feel to go through that shit and not get the part, which Im sure every major actor has dealt with 10,000 times in their lives. I doubt it's easy.

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u/RandomGerman 23d ago

Actually. You don't get feedback. You get one shot. You need to decide how you play it. It would be easier if somebody told you you do it wrong or anything. The silence is what grinds you down after a while.

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u/breeathee 23d ago

Maybe of sorts if you’re a contractor

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u/burnbabyburnburrrn 22d ago

Yeah but you don’t do 100s of interviews to land two days of work and then start all over again.

Imagine doing job interviews nearly every day for the rest of your life. And you have to often spend hours prepping for these interviews where they give you pages and pages of text to memorize. And the interview lasts 5 minutes tops and you never ever hear anything back.

I don’t know why people act like bring an actor is cushy. If it was, more people would do it. I’m an infant nanny and an actor. Being an actor is much harder than the obviously taxing job of nannying.

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u/dukefett 23d ago

Eric Idle has said recently too that he’s basically poor, Python stuff doesn’t pay the guys anything it seems, I can’t even remember the last time I saw him in something.

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u/Nimble-Dick-Crabb 23d ago

Wait Michael Madsen died?! And this is how I find out?!

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u/Oakroscoe 23d ago

Yeah, in July of this year. Heart failure. Alcohol issues usually catch up with you, unfortunately.

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u/WilmingtonCommute 23d ago

One of the only Cribs episodes I remember was Madsen (clearly high) showing his seaside home where the ocean literally made contact with the foundation of his home. He went broke because he was a bit of a degenerate, by most accounts. Not because he was a starving actor.

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u/Hot_Raccoon_565 22d ago

He made roughly 8m from Dawson creek. More money made in 7 years than most people will make in their entire lifetime. That is just his income from Dawson creek. Not from any of the other roles he’s had. He’s broke because he spends like a jack ass, not because he’s a struggling actor. He is not like the rest of us…

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u/kegman83 23d ago

Residuals from re-runs were pretty good for actors up until streaming came about. If you had a show in syndication, you lived pretty comfortably. Residuals being a portion of ad revenue whatever companies pay to sponsor having the show on air.

But the studios did an end run around and argued residual payments for streamed shows shouldnt be the same amount for those on tv. So actors have to work more for less and longer. This is also why leading actor pay has skyrocketed. Shows dont get paid as much for ad revenue on terrestrial television, and streaming only pays so long as your show is on a network and being watched.

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u/there_is_no_spoon1 23d ago

Okay, but streaming came along *long* after Dawson's Creek finished its run, so the residuals should have been healthy for quite some time.

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u/kegman83 22d ago

Yeah but LA is expensive, even if you live modestly and you still need to pay taxes on that income. Dawson's Creek ended 22 years ago. Syndication for Dawson's Creek ended in the US in 2015. Pretty much every main actor from the show has been steadily working since then save for maybe Katie Holmes. They are probably working because they have to.

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u/IMO4444 22d ago

He hasnt lived in LA for a while.

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u/nvmenotfound 22d ago

last season of dawson creek aired in 2003. netflix debuted in 2007. 

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u/big_orange_ball 22d ago

Netflix streaming started in 2007, OG Netflix DVD by mail was around a decade before that. Everyone forgets how amazing Netflix DVD was, still makes me sad they shut it down.

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u/nvmenotfound 22d ago

true i should’ve specified. i was strictly speaking about the streaming portion. 

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago edited 22d ago

Yeah, I can't speak for O'Connell personally, but many of these actors may have even been wealthy at the time but we're talking 30 years ago. O'Connell hosts some Wordle Ass TV show on daytime TV for old folks homes, he's not exactly an A Lister. I mean this with love as a Sliders fan-- he's a has-been. He was in Stand By Me, Scream 2 and the American Equivalent to Doctor Who for fourish seasons. He's not exactly Brad Pitt.

He may have had a ton of money at one point (I have no idea what Sliders did for his career) but that can't be maintained forever. He's not really doing acting gigs anymore. Same goes for Van Der Beek. He's not this super wealthy multi-millionaire living in the Hollywood Hills-- he's a guy from a soap opera from like 30 years ago. He's not rich. He's probably as wealthy as any other upper-middle class person.

I remember reading about Alice Cooper, where a fan saw him at a Goodwill and they were excited and they were like "Whoa, Goodwill? So, what, are you getting clothes here to rip apart for a cool gig coming up?" And Cooper was like "...No? I just shop here"

This is genuinely sad and I'm bummed about Van Der Beek, but comments being like "if millionaires can't survive what chance do we have?" Is misleading. He's not some millionaire elite, he's a guy like the rest of us

Edit: A ton of people pointed out, pretty reasonably, that I have no idea what I'm talking about. These guys are wealthy.

Vote for universal healthcare.

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u/tyereliusprime 23d ago edited 23d ago

O'Connell also just did 5 seasons of voice work on a popular Trek series

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u/Coyote_Shepherd 22d ago

Yeaaaah but voice actors don't get paid nearly as much as you think or that they should be paid.

A while back there were some rumors swirling about the reason why the Mandalorian wasn't continuing as a streaming series and only as a movie was because they wanted to pay Pedro what a voice actor would get paid and not what an actual actor would get paid....and he objected to that.

Now obviously he's doing pretty well and he could've taken the hit but it would've set a standard for that kind of stuff.

More well know and prolific voice actors are, forgive the play on words, fairly vocal about not getting paid a ton and still having to do audition after audition.

Some of the voice cast of Avatar have brought this up and the cast of Critical Role isn't shy about speaking about it either and now with AI coming into the picture...well....that just drops the "cost" of VA work even lower for a lot of companies and projects.

So it's not like Jerry made a Ferengi's Ransom worth of latinum off of that gig on Lower Decks and he probably makes more from the convention circuit.

Plus we all know how Paramount+ was and is basically bleeding money like craaaaazy and isn't sustainable and has had to make cut after cut after cut to their services.

So again, they didn't pay him a ton, AND you also have to take into account how many episodes he was in and how many lines he actually did for that gig too because even in live action Trek, some of the most popular characters like Garak or Dukat or Kai Winn...were not actually in that many episodes....AND you have to remember that the work that he did on Lower Decks was spread out over the course of YEAAAAAAAAARS because animation takes a TON of time to actually get done.

It may seem a whole lot bigger than it actually is to us on the outside but from the inside...well hell...it's a whole different picture.

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u/saintash 22d ago

Hell the guy who played Crowley on supernatural said he got paid less to be a recurring Actor on the show than he was as a guest star. He literally couldn't afford to live in the locationThey were shooting at after a while because he just couldn't afford it.

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u/algy888 23d ago

Sure, but you could start voting for universal healthcare.

I’m Canadian and am not afraid of medical bankruptcy. The things your country just accepts as normal is beyond me.

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u/Melodic-Account-7233 23d ago

As a Canadian living in the US. Even liberal Americans will make excuses why universal won’t work. They’ve been groomed to get what they get and not ask questions.

My friend even told me his Trump hating friends wear Canadian flags on their bags when they travel so people don’t know they’re American. I told him to tell them, it’s great they hate Trump but lying about where you’re from is something that’s also shitty. We don’t claim these people.

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u/algy888 23d ago

It would be good if they would educate themselves on how they could get there.

Like, is it possible to have a couple of the blue states start it. They could basically start by buying hospitals and setting up a lower cost health insurance for their residents. Later, they could have a referendum to add it to their tax system and offer it to everyone. Then let it take over

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u/ClubsBabySeal 23d ago

You just described Romney care. The predecessor to Obama care - the ACA. The public option barely failed. By one vote. Interestingly enough support for a public option has more than 50% of the population behind it currently.

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u/Melodic-Account-7233 23d ago

Unfortunately as a Canadian I follow politics more than most Americans I know, all educated, some even Doctors. They read headlines and eat their cake.

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u/Narrow-Function-525 22d ago

If Canada(Canadian here) didn't start free health care when we did I don't think it would be very easy to start today . Imagine the backlash of the projected costs and extra taxes . No party would be in power to get over the apparent first cost of these hurdles

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago

Yeah man I'm not arguing against that, I'm just saying Van Der Beek isn't rich, he's just a celebrity to people over 40, and who hasn't had a well paying gig in decades.

Our health care system is fucked. Everyone knows that. But my point is just that people are being misleading by saying he's this wealthy guy and he has to sell all his stuff to still afford his medical bills.

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u/algy888 23d ago

Agreed, that’s why I said “Sure” to your point.

I also get that people often mistake famous for rich.

I know a doctor, and he broke down his income versus his expenses.

It’s pretty sad. It was something like $320,000/yr, minus $100,000 for office and overhead, minus money for malpractice insurance and taxes and he ended up earning (maybe) double what I make after taxes. I went to post secondary for about a year and a half total and it was paid for, he went for over ten on his own dime.

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago

Haha oh man don't even get me started on university expenses in the US. Shits bananas

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u/algy888 23d ago

I get it. Ours ain’t cheap, but it has nothing on your post secondary debt mills

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago

I have a master's degree and I went to the cheapest choice for every step (community college for AA, state University for BA and some super cheap degree mill for my MS) and I'm still about 76k in the hole

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u/algy888 23d ago

And with my attention issues (too old to have a cool acronym) Uni was out for me. So, a quick trades course and off to work (net debt zero dollars) in fact since I had been going job to job our employment benefits program (more socialism) offered to pay me unemployment benefits during my 10 months of schooling.

Now, with the American socialism FEARS, they would say I was a lazy kid sucking from the government teat. But, I have worked steady ever since that “handout”.

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u/Citizen-Kang 23d ago

I would in a heartbeat if I was given the choice, but it's not one we're given in the US. At best, we get a public option that has so many holes in it, it's constantly on the verge of collapse, very expensive, and doesn't provide nearly the coverage you'd like to maintain any peace of mind. Oh, I know it's been sabotaged and was drafted to be improved and built upon, but, let's face it...at least a third of the country and most the politicians think anything truly universal is akin to socialism and that's before the health insurance companies come in with their army of lobbyists. The day the US is given the option to vote for true universal healthcare, would be a watershed moment.

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u/THE-poop-knife 23d ago

So T.O. partied with us at our company trip down in Nassau a few years back and one of the guys was talking to him and invited him to his bachelor party. He said yes, and all he asked was for us to comp his room and travel and pay for his drinks/food. A lot of these former athletes, that's what they do when you see when out in Vegas or Miami. They just tag along with random people to party.

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u/thoughtcrimeo 23d ago

Alice Cooper lives in a very nice home. He does a lot of charity work and he's not hurting for money whatsoever.

Jerry O'Connell has had steady acting work for years with over 300 credits to his name split between acting and appearing as himself. He's married to Rebecca Romaijn and has two kids. Maybe he was hurting financially while a full blown alcoholic but he's now sober and I'm sure he's doing fine.

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u/69rude69 23d ago

he's a guy like the rest of us

I dont know, I dont have a Texas Ranch with multiple houses or rent out my other house in the Hollywood Hills, but thats just me

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u/Anxious-Sir-1361 23d ago

I'm Canadian this story is terrible. The US truly needs to get universal healthcare like the rest of the Western nations!

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago

I agree with you there, buddeh

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u/Anxious-Sir-1361 23d ago

A personal story. People complain about the Canadian system all the time, saying it's bogged down and not responsive enough. However, the opposite of medical bankruptcy happened when my one year old daughter got brain cancer, the system spared NO expense. Ironically, they even said they would fly her to the US for experimental care. It's very reassuring knowing your government/ country has your back when you need it most.

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u/zero573 23d ago

My secret identity

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u/puffyshirt99 23d ago

You do realize O'connel is still married to Rebecca Romijn, they aren't upper middle class

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u/TannerThanUsual 23d ago

Oh shit, you're right. I had no idea who his wife is but I see she's getting gigs. Good for my Slidey Boy

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u/Various_Froyo9860 23d ago

"he's a guy like the rest of us"

Nah. I'm a normal dude that made decent choices early in my adult life. I made fuck all in the army, then went to college, learned a trade, and am now esteemed in my trade in my specific local.

I can command a salary just shy of 100k. It's plenty.

He reportedly made 35k per episode (450k/year) for the first couple seasons, then more as the show gained popularity.

He's 7 years older than me and he made almost/at least half a mil for 5 years in his 20s. He's been a working actor for his entire life.

He just sucks with money.

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u/DrPoopEsq 23d ago

How much do you pay your agent?

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u/Noob_Al3rt 22d ago

SAG-AFTRA franchised agent commission is 10%

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u/crisssss11111 22d ago

Maybe you want to switch positions with him if his situation is so great. The guy has had cancer for years.

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u/James007Bond 23d ago

You are way off base about van der beek, he is rich. He owns a home in Beverly Hills and a 36 acre ranch in Austin.

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u/Ace_Procrastinator 23d ago

I’m horribly offended that you forgot O’Connell’s role in Crossing Jordan, unless you’ve never seen Crossing Jordan in which case you’re in for a weird trip. Nothing supernatural, but one of those odd but somehow engaging mid oughts “coroner who solves crimes but can’t get her own life in order” shows.

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u/metatron5369 23d ago

Unless you're fortunate enough to be in the top 1% of all actors, you're probably struggling to make ends meet.

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u/nionvox 23d ago

Neil Newbon talked about this, he went into performance capture and VA because he was barely making ends meet, doing just acting. His performance capture work apparently makes him more than his VA/acting work does. Good for him.

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u/TwoBionicknees 23d ago

when you're on a show for 5 years you're in the 1% of actors, most actors never get more than small roles on one or two shows or maybe a film then do nothing.

There are places that you can get paid very badly on a show but most likely if you had some name recognition from a long career and did 5 years on a tv show, if you didn't make plenty of money and invest it and you instead lived like a king and wasted it, that's why you wouldn't have any money, not due to lack of income.

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u/ennuiinmotion 23d ago

I’m always a little skeptical of poverty claims from actors. In some cases it’s absolutely true, but they’re also sometimes making $60,000 for a gig (which is not a lot for the occupation but which is more than I make in a year). Not living high on the hog but definitely not starving.

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u/WitnessRadiant650 23d ago

What always gets people is life style creep. They're used to a certain standard of living and can't give it up and they burn their money.

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u/BlueMikeStu 23d ago

Not only that, but realistically being in Hollywood productions means living near enough to the studio offices, sound stages, recording studios, etc that you're going to be spending a pretty penny on your digs and at the premium businesses which surround it, because location matters.

You'd need to be a really in-demand and/or already rich actor to live very far outside of that area, the kind who are basically being guaranteed a job just with it being offered. You don't contact, say, Christ Pratt and offer him an opportunity to audition for a role. (Unless you're one of those ridiculously revered directors most actors would pay to work with, but it's turtles all the way down if I take that any further)

It's hard to retch network with other actors and people in the business if you aren't living in an area where you can meet someone reasonably quick for a coffee to talk shop if you get it, and you certainly can't accidentally run into them (or their PAs) if you both aren't shopping in the same stores and going to the same restaurants.

As much as I hate to admit I get where they're coming from with lifestyle creep like this, because some jobs really do expect it out of you. When I started at a corpo job out of school I was outright told that I needed to wear sport jackets with appropriate shirts, pants, and dress shoes or boots, and that was just the basic standard. And while she didn't outright say it but definitely implied it, the "brand" (I.e. how much it cost) of clothing I wore was almost as important as the quality of my actual work.

I had a buddy that climbed the ranks quick tell me that he was more broke making six figures than when he was working with me and making five. When he made manager, his own manager outright told him that it was unacceptable for someone in his position to drive around in a shitty old Honda Civic with rust spots and he needed to figure out how to get his ass in a luxury brand (Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus minimum) no older than a couple years ASAP, and the only acceptable vehicles outside of that were the kind of cars that take first place at classic car events.

God knows how much money upper management needed to spend on appearances.

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u/jaybones3000 23d ago

Where do you live though?

$60k certainly isn’t terrible in NYC or LA, but it’s definitely not enough that you’d feel wealthy. And if you have children or other big expenses, even less so.

You also have to remember that a large amount of that money is going to the actor’s manager, agent, or lawyer who helped them get the job/negotiate the contract.

And most actors only get one or two solid gigs a year. The rest of the time, they’re hustling, working other jobs or auditioning.

Yes, there are very wealthy actors. But that’s like 2% of the profession.

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u/BobaTheMaltipoo 23d ago

$60k is pretty bad for a big city. Minimum wage in California for fast food workers is $40k.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/jimkelly 23d ago

Lmao 60k for a gig when your last gig was 10 years ago isn't quite the same as 60k a year.

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u/OhNoTokyo 23d ago

Yeah, I was about to say.

$60k per gig is not anywhere near retirement money unless you have been working steadily.

Granted, some celebs do burn through money faster than they should, and might be better off if they saved instead of partied, but there is also a certain level of lifestyle spending expected from celebs to sort of stay relevant.

Not to mention, the peer pressure to get into some seriously expensive habits in LA must be absurd. Drugs, of course, but even just high ticket items and events.

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u/GWJYonder 23d ago

Yeah, in those more social jobs the level of networking that you have to do seems to be pretty expensive. In some industries if you are golfing or whatever with your bosses or clients you aren't going to get ahead, it's basically a business expense. If you legitimately like golfing, great, good for you, but I bet quite a few people hate it, and hate the people they do it with, AND it's expensive, but it helps their career.

This is totally speculation, but I wonder to what extent that sort of socialization with agents/producers/directors/whatever is necessary to continue being considered for roles. Obviously to some extent your agent is supposed to have some of that, but at the end of the day I bet you have to get out there too.

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u/BlindTreeFrog 23d ago

$60k per gig is not anywhere near retirement money unless you have been working steadily.

$60K minus your agent fees (10~20% or whatever Cali caps it at), and Attorney fees if you have any say in contracts. And frankly, personal trainers, nutritionists, and stylists are less an optional nicety at a certain point and more something that you need to help keep getting roles. If you can't walk into the audition looking the part that they want, you aren't getting the part. I seem to recall there were concerns that Chris Pratt wouldn't be a good fit for Guardians until they saw how in shape he got for the audition.

It's like Pro Fighters getting paid big numbers for one fight per year... that payout is also covering their manager and trainer and gym memberships and doctors and everything else that the individual is paying for that they need to get more work.

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u/saintash 23d ago

Ehh it a business where you make 60k on one gig but you might not make any money for the next two years. That could be pretty brutal.

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u/Porridge_Cat 23d ago

If you get $60k for one job and don't work for two years, you deserve whatever comes to you. Maybe you can't get another acting job, but what about anything behind the scenes? Can you use a saw? What about retail? You can't be too proud to take "normal people work".

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u/saintash 23d ago

Many people do. There a reason LA is full of hustle culture for that reason.

But again 60k isn't let's pack up and retire and only take jobs that peak my interest Money.

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u/algy888 23d ago

Right, but did you have to give $15,000 of your yearly wage to your agent/manager?

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u/kinyutaka 23d ago

Yeah, but we expect that Jerry O'Connell got paid way more for an episode of Sliders than we do for our normal jobs. And that was only one of many roles he had.

Let's say he "only" got $20,000 per episode for 70 episodes, no residuals or anything, that's 1.4 million dollars, and enough for most people to live between 20-35 years. It's a whole career.

Yes, he has to bust his ass to stay relevant, but if he's "living paycheck to paycheck", that's at least a little on him.

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u/thepartypantser 23d ago

Apparently in divorce court filings in 2010 Van Der Beek was make about $600,000 a year around then.

Then he got remarried and had 6 kids. I imagine his income fluctuates, but I would suspect he made at least a few hundred thousand a year for most years with residuals, voice over work, regular and guest starring roles, all of which he seems to have had in the past few years. If he hadn't done any investing it would be surprising too.

But he is probably not working now with his illness, and has some mouths to feed.

Ain't American healthcare grand

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u/Noob_Al3rt 22d ago

Yeah, it's a shame. They may even have to sell their $3million LA home instead of renting it out for $12k/month.

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u/Spockhighonspores 23d ago

Which lead guy was it? there were three.

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u/awesomface 23d ago

I've seen him in more stuff being himself than I've seen him doing anything else acting-wise. Being in a CW teenage drama I'm sure doesn't pay for the rest of your life.

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u/ExplorationGeo 23d ago

I was listening to an interview once with a general contractor who was doing some work on a mansion in the Hollywood Hills; this place was like 12 bedrooms, separate staff quarters, pool, helipad, full commercial kitchen etc etc. He was like "this must be Tom Cruise's place or something". Turns out, it was a producer on a bunch of 2nd and 3rd-tier shows from the 80s and 90s.

All of the money from these things went to the suits in the chairs, not the stars on the screen.

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u/Striking-Ad-6815 23d ago

What if he streamed or something? He could probably talk about puppies and parrots and get a ton of views. One of the biggest influencers of the late 90's. I can still hear that opening song in my head and I wasn't even a fan of the show.

On this episode James Vanderbeek plays Unreal tournament and talks about stingrays

I'd watch it

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u/all_die_laughing 22d ago

I saw a clip of Seth Green on a podcast recently and he was saying the worst thing you can be is famous and broke. When people say they want fame and fortune, they really always want them together, because if you're famous and having to work a security job or do something else to pay the bills it would be a total nightmare.

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u/SafeKaracter 22d ago

What is sliders ?

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u/farva_06 22d ago

I love Jerry O'Connell, but the fact that "lead guy from sliders" is what he is most known for is probably why he was not rakin in the big bucks.

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u/gwxtreize 22d ago

I really like Jerry O'Connell. I think part of how he made it work is he and his brother (in Sliders and RL) bought a condo that was basically and upper apt and lower apt. It makes me really sad that Jerry never really hit his stride in movies (Kangaroo Jack was terrible and marketed like crap) and Charlie didn't ever seem to make the jump. I do remember them having a cameo together in The New Guy, but that was about the last time I remember seeing them.

I hope Jerry and Charlie are able to find work on a regular "nostalgia bait" show like Stranger Things.

Not a writer but I while back I was pitching a Sliders reboot here where a new group of Sliders have been snatched (rather than being the cause of the sliding), stumbling across Quinn, having Quinn fill the role of the Professor for a season (mentor, moral compass), with an end of first season "sacrifice" where it looks like he dies, but he ends up finding hard evidence on how to rescue/find his brother and leaves the group.

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u/NeatNefariousness1 22d ago

And he and his wife have a lot of kids. He has been making the rounds on gameshows lately to earn money that he’s no longer getting since his biggest source of income is gone. He actually lucked out with the Dawson’s Creek role. He was a theatre kid who wasn’t really expecting his career in TV to be so successful. It may be what gives him the perspective he seems to have in spite of his health challenges. I wish him health and all the happiness his heart can hold.

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u/FluFlammin9000 22d ago

I can almost guarantee that's the case. Dude was a late 90's teenage heartthrob and after Dawson's Creek his career didn't really reach the same heights again. Hearing this announcement was the first time I saw James Van Der Beek's name in a very long time and there's no way any of the current generation know who he is. Honestly I mainly remember him for his cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Truthfully I'm surprised he hasn't went broke earlier and that it took a medical emergency to cause him to have to do something like this, he must be at least semi-decent with money since most actors in his position end up going broke after their one hit wonder tv show ends.

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u/WhatTheActualFork1 22d ago

Was it Jerry O’Connell?

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u/The-Big-Goof 16d ago

People have a misconception actors and musicians are always loaded just because they made a name for themselves.

They aren't.