Holland Taylor slams Two And A Half Men salary: ‘Never gave me a raise’
Holland Taylor played the mother on Two And A Half Men (Mitchell Haddad/Warner Bros)
Holland Taylor has said she let her Two and a Half Men contract end after six years because she did not get a pay rise, despite receiving four Emmy nominations for the role.
Speaking on the Alchemy with Anthony Mason podcast, Taylor said: “I got four Emmy nominations, and they never gave me a raise. They usually do.”
Taylor played Evelyn Harper, mum of Charlie (played by Charlie Sheen) and Alan (Jon Cryer), on the sitcom. She said money was a key factor in her decision to stop renewing her deal after season six, choosing instead to return only when it suited her.
“They never paid me very well on that show. I was paid on that show what I had made on a series like eight years before or something,” said Taylor, who is in a long-term relationship with actress Sarah Paulson.
‘I only did it if I wanted to’
Taylor said she made a deliberate choice to step away from being tied to the show full-time.
“When the six years were up, I said, ‘I don’t want to be on a contract anymore, but I will visit the show occasionally if you want,’” she recalled. “I mean, I did play the boys’ mother.”
She also described how it worked once she was no longer under contract, saying the production would ask if she could do a guest appearance on a specific date, and she would simply decline if she could not.
“I only did it if I wanted to do it,” she said.
Taylor added: “I loved a lot about that show, but they were not full of courtesies.”
‘They said, “We can’t afford to give you more”’
Taylor said the show’s team seemed to think she was negotiating, and told her they could not afford to increase her pay.
She replied: “You could actually pay me the cost of this building, but don’t bother because I don’t want to continue on under contract.”
Taylor said the back-and-forth continued, with the production insisting: “But we can’t afford to give you more.” Taylor said she responded: “I’m cool with it. I just will come back as a guest from time to time.”
Taylor went on to claim that Cryer did get a pay rise, though, saying: “Jon quadrupled his salary or something like that,.”
Two and a Half Men ran for 12 seasons on CBS between 2003 and 2015.
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