Zendaya is the moment and has been for quite a while. So much so, that HBO execs are cashing in on the star and are expected to pay her $1 million for each episode she stars in this upcoming season.
According to the online publication Puck, the Emmy Award winner “just closed a big re-negotiation” putting her salary close to the historic deal stars of the popular 90s sitcom Friends made per episode.
The meteoric salary increase comes just months after an actress dished about the low pay TV actors actually made. “They don’t pay actors like they used to, and with streamers, you no longer get residuals,” American actress Sydney Sweeney told The Hollywood Reporter. “The established stars still get paid, but I have to give 5 percent to my lawyer, 10 percent to my agents, 3 percent or something like that to my business manager. I have to pay my publicist every month, and that’s more than my mortgage.”
If the reports are true, Zendaya will join the ranks of other A-listers who earn seven-figure salaries including Michael Keaton for his work on Dopesick, Jason Sudekis on Ted Lasso and Elisabeth Moss on Shining Girls, the publication added.
As it stands, John Krasinski is currently the highest-paid TV star for his role in Jack Ryan, Puck further dished.
TV analysts and entertainment critics believe Zendaya’s high-paying gig stems from her two Emmy wins, in addition to her international flair which has now made her a household name. She has also starred in “two major Hollywood franchises in Marvel’s Spider-Man and Dune, the latter of which will see its second installment released this November,” according to GQ.
In 2019, the 26-year-old Oakland native became the youngest person to snag an Emmy nomination for producing Euphoria shortly after she was named one of the series’ executive producers. She would go on to win the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
In a recent interview, Zendaya revealed that fans will be in for more surprises when the third season airs later this year.
“I think it’ll be exciting to explore the characters out of high school. I want to see what Rue looks like in her sobriety journey, how chaotic that might look,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “But also with all the characters, in the sense where they’re trying to figure out what to do with their lives when high school is over and what kind of people they want to be.”
