Zendaya marked her feature film debut with the role of Michelle Jones-Watson aka MJ in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming. Following the MCU entry, Zendaya joined The Greatest Showman alongside Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron and her career has only shot upwards from then.
Starring alongside Timothée Chalamet in the Dune franchise, Zendaya has had quite the salary jump if the rumors are true. Although the cast of Dune received an overall low salary, Zendaya’s alleged paycheck jump just shows the impact of fame on an actor!
Zendaya’s Alleged Salary Jump Is Quite Impressive!
Starring in iconic movies throughout the years, Zendaya became one of the 100 most influential people back in 2022. With her role as Chani in Dune: Part One, the actress had quite a fun time working with director Denis Villeneuve and Timothée Chalamet.
The Euphoria actress recently reprised her role in Dune: Part Two and this time, she is more present on the screen compared to the first part. A tweet on X allegedly revealed the salaries of the cast members of the Dune franchise and they are quite lower than expected. What’s more harrowing is that Zendaya’s paycheck for the first film and her paycheck for the second film have a huge difference as the actress earned almost two million dollars more for her role as Chani in Dune: Part Two!
To compare, cast salaries for ‘DUNE: PART ONE’ (rumored):
– Chalamet : $2.2M
– Bautista : $2M
– Momoa : $2M
– Ferguson : $500k
– Isaac : $400k
– Dastmalchian : $400k
– Brolin : $350k
– Zendaya : $300k
– Skarsgard : $200k
– McKinley : $175k pic.twitter.com/LGpFJFE46g— Denis Villeneuve Universe (@DenisVfilms) March 8, 2024
As can be seen in the tweet above, Zendaya had a meager payment of $300K to her name during the release of Dune: Part One back in 2021. On the other hand, the actress was paid a whopping $2 million for her reprisal in Dune: Part Two. Although the alleged salaries are comparatively very low, the jump from $300K to $2 million is indeed quite an impressive one!
Josh Brolin Compared Zendaya To Taylor Swift!
As mentioned above, the Challengers actress had more screen time than the first part of Dune: Part Two. In an interview with Seth Meyers on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Dune: Part Two star Josh Brolin talked about how he secretly went to view the film in a theater and how people reacted to Zendaya’s on-screen presence.
“Every time Zendaya comes up, it’s like Taylor Swift has showed up in your living room. It was an amazing experience,”
He further continued,
“I could have said, ‘Hey, I’m hosting SNL this next week. Does anybody care? Literally nothing.”
Starring alongside Timothée Chalamet and reprising her role of Chani with a higher paycheck, Zendaya’s Dune: Part Two received a rating of 8.9/10 on IMDB and a whopping 93% on Rotten Tomatoes! The film is currently screening in theaters around the world for people to see.
