Tiffany Haddish Says She Was Never Paid For Starring In Her First Film: “They Were Supposed To Pay Me $1,200 To Do The Movie”

Tiffany Haddish reveals that she didn’t receive any compensation for her initial film appearance.

During an interview with the Associated Press, Haddish discussed Hollywood’s evolving financial structures during the SAG-AFTRA strike. She disclosed that prior to her role in “Girls Trip,” she acted in a non-union movie and was assured a $1,200 payment, but she ultimately did not receive a single dollar.

“My very first movie I ever did that I was the star in, I was homeless while I was shooting that movie,” Haddish said. “They were supposed to pay me $1,200 to do the movie. I wasn’t in the union. It was non union film so there was nothing I could do about it. They never paid me. They never paid me a dime. The producers gave me 10 DVDs and said, ‘Sell those. Good luck.’ I never saw the movie.”

She continued, “Then ‘Girls Trip’ comes out in 2017. That movie is all over BET, VH1…this network, this streaming. It’s everywhere, that movie! I don’t get a dime. It’s the second worst movie I was ever in. Not a penny.”

In 2020, Haddish revealed that she earned $80,000 for her role in “Girls Trip.” During an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine the previous year, she shared that she dedicated her entire paycheck to completing the payment for the house she purchased after the initial season of “The Carmichael Show.” She was determined to quickly pay off the house to avoid the possibility of experiencing homelessness once more.

“I started trying to figure out how to create generational wealth. The fastest way to do it and the first way you should go about doing it is buy some land,” Haddish said. “So before we even got into Season 2 of ‘The Carmichael Show,’ I bought a house. Everybody told me I should wait, but I didn’t care.”