Breaking Bad star RJ Mitte has revealed how much money he actually made from appearing in the hit TV show, where he played the son of a high school chemistry teacher who turned to making meth after a cancer diagnosis.
His character remained blissfully unaware of the dirty dealings of Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) for most of the show right up until learning the truth in its dramatic final season.
Mitte, meanwhile, was growing up on camera and getting paid for it.
The actor told The Guardian in 2016 that by the time he was 13 he was 'the main breadwinner' for his family as he'd been getting work as an extra, with him ending up as part of the main cast for Breaking Bad during his teenage years.
Advert
However, he recently revealed that he didn't make as much off the show though he said that overall the show 'changed my life in a great way'.
How much did RJ Mitte make from Breaking Bad?
Speaking to The Iced Coffee Hour, the actor was reminded that in 2015 he'd told the Daily Telegraph his time on Breaking Bad 'didn't even make me a millionaire'.
A decade ago, he said the show 'gave me a career' and 'more work than I could possibly imagine', but said back then that he was 'still waiting' to see the financial impact being in one of the most popular TV shows of all time would have.
He explained that making more money 'means more bills' and turning the clock forwards to 2025 he told The Iced Coffee Hour that in the end he 'paid more in taxes than I got from Breaking Bad'.
"I had a team, a big team at one point, and I was traveling the world doing stuff and so mostly I was paying to keep my career going," Mitte explained to the hosts as they wondered how this could have happened.
When the podcast brought up that his net worth was listed at several million dollars he suggested it might be based off 'what I've earned in my entire life'.
Mitte explained that he 'got royally hammered' by a 'bad business manager', claiming they 'got 14 other actors' and alleging that 'she was siphoning funds'.
He said: "I would write a check um I'd write a check and like to go pay my taxes and instead of her using it to pay my taxes, she would send me a fake filing of taxes and take that money.
"And so at the end of the day though, it's my negligence. So regardless with that, the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] doesn't really care about you. They only care that you make sure that you're that you are paying it."
Mitte explained that it took him 10 years to pay off the taxes he owed.
Why do child actors seem to struggle so much?
Elsewhere in his chat with The Iced Coffee Hour, he was asked why many child actors seem to struggle and had a clear answer as to why this was the case.
He said: "When you're hot, you're hot, and when you're not, you're not.
"When you're a young kid and you're easily influenced it's the stars, it's the people, it's like it's glitz and glamour and all these things."
Describing it like 'you don't see like the forest through the trees', the actor spoke of young stars being offered all sorts of life ruining substances.
"You hear a lot about drug abuse and a lot of drug activity and kids getting into stuff young and then affecting them," Mitte explained.
"When you're popular it's free, right? Everyone's like 'people offer me stuff all the time'. I'm like, I'm good on that. I've seen enough problems. I don't need any problem."
What have other child actors earned?
Showbiz is littered with actors who started their career as children and never really ended up with the kind of money they were supposed to be paid for their work.
However, working in a popular project from yesteryear does keep the money rolling in in the form of residuals.
People who played kids in Titanic are still getting small amounts of money as the movie keeps making money and they're entitled to a slice of it, while Casey Margolis from Superbad got $700 (£540) a day on set to be a young Seth obsessed with drawing d*cks and he still gets a few hundred bucks every now and then from video rental fees.
He said his biggest residual cheque was $10,033.34 (£7,700), of which he got to keep $6,757.47 (£5,200) after costs.
Meanwhile, some young stars do rather well as they negotiate smart deals like Jason Weaver, who provided the young singing voice for Simba in The Lion King.
He'd been offered $2 million for his part in the movie, but his mum turned down the deal and insisted on negotiating royalties with Jason getting paid $100,000 (£76,800) upfront but has earned far more in subsequent payments than he'd have got if he signed on the line for a couple of million.
Topics: Breaking Bad, Celebrity, TV and Film, Money
Joe Harker