Freddie Prinze Jr. Was Asked to Take a Pay Cut in Order to Give Co-Stars a Raise on SCOOBY-DOO Sequel

Freddie Prinze Jr. was a huge star of teen-movies in the 90s and 2000s. While he has grown up to star in more adult roles, like his recently released holiday movie, Christmas With You, in which he plays a single father, he will always be remembered for the earlier roles like She’s All That and Scooby-Doo.

In a recent interview with Esquire, Prinze talked about some of those early parts and the growing pains that came along with being a young actor in Hollywood. By the time Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed came out in 2004, two years after the first movie, Prinze had a successful career going, and he was promised a certain paycheck for the film. But executives decided that when the actor’s co-stars asked for a raise, is should be at his expense.

Prinze explained:

“I remember thinking, ‘Hold up, who's giving them the raise? Me or y'all?’ Like we made you guys three-quarters of a billion dollars, you can't afford to pay them what I'm making on this? Screw that."

To get him to comply, the studio allegedly released Prinze Jr.'s salary in a magazine. “My ego was so angry,” he recalls. He decided he was done with the franchise.

Over the years, his perspective on the project has shifted thanks to social media. He can finally think of the movie as something meaningful to people—not a cash grab.

He added:

“All these people that had grown up loving those [Scooby-Doo] movies started reaching out…and then I got what I felt was a more accurate perspective on what that movie meant to people because I was no longer viewing it through the lenses of the studio.”

It sounds like the studio was being really shady! Just pay your actors what they deserve, especially when you know you’re making a sequel that fans are going to show up for. I’m glad it didn’t hurt anyone’s careers, and the fans got a film to enjoy.

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