In her recently released memoir, Rebel Rising, Rebel Wilson describes in detail how salaries in Hollywood may rise rapidly. The comedian and actress talks candidly about her pay for the Pitch Perfect trilogy and Bridesmaids.
In the book, Wilson claims that the 2011 film Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, and Melissa McCarthy, only paid her $3,500.
But her tiny cheque was used entirely for the Screen Actors Guild dues to become a member of the union. However, Wilson states, "That didn't matter to me. The experience was everything!"
Within two weeks of Bridesmaids' premiere, Wilson says she booked six new gigs, including the 2012 a cappella hit, Pitch Perfect.
“Boy, did that movie pay dividends!” Wilson writes, noting she was paid “SAG minimum scale, which was $65,000,” for the film.
Pitch Perfect's success led to two sequels in 2015 and 2017. Wilson was paid $10 million for Pitch Perfect 3.
It's evident that the actress had to fight for the leap, even though she admits it was a "pretty big pay raise."
“At the very end of filming Pitch 2, the producers told the older girls, like me, Anna Camp, Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow, that we would not feature in the third movie,” Wilson writes.
“They were going to replace us all with younger actresses, led by Hailee Steinfeld, whose character was introduced in Pitch 2.”