Paul Walter Hauser has discussed how much money he made from appearing as Mole Man in Marvel movie The Fantastic Four: First Steps — and how much of his paycheck he actually saw after taxes and other deductions.
Hollywood stars rarely discuss their salaries, but Hauser decided to set the record straight in a conversation with Vulture, explaining why he has taken on so many projects over the course of his career.
Since 2018, Hauser has averaged around three movies a year while also appearing in numerous TV series such as Cobra Kai and performing as a professional wrestler. But why is he such a workaholic? Hauser says he simply needs to work in order to get paid.
"For something like Fantastic Four, you make two or three hundred thousand bucks to play Mole Man," Hauser revealed, before explaining that this amount was not what he actually ended up seeing in his bank account.
"Then [there's] taxes, agent 10%, manager 10%, lawyer 10%, I give 5% to a business manager, and then I grew up in the church so I'm always tithing something... I'll give away some money to someone who needs it. At the end of the day, what looked like $250k is a lot closer to $136,000.
"That's still a lot of money by anyone's metric," Hauser continued, "but it's not going to set you up for life."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hauser also suggested his co-starring role in The Fantastic Four was one of the larger paychecks he'd received during his career, further explaining why he took on so many projects.
"There's a reason I do a s*** ton of movies and it's because I have to keep doing them," Hauser concluded, "as I'm not getting paid on a Springsteen or a Fantastic Four what I'm getting paid on The Luckiest Man in America or Balls Up." Here, Hauser is referencing his co-starring role in the Jeremy Allen White-fronted Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, as well as two projects made on smaller budgets.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps features Hauser in several scenes, though his appearance as Mole Man was the subject of notable cuts as Marvel heavily massaged the film during post-production (a process that also saw John Malkovich's villain Red Ghost removed completely).
While there's no word yet on whether The Fantastic Four will get a standalone sequel, Hauser has plenty of other projects going on. The actor will next appear in Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie reboot, and will appear as the owner of Scooby-Doo in Netflix's upcoming live-action TV series.
Image credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
