Who pays for the physical changes an actor might be required to make for a movie? Is it written in the contract? Or do actors do it for free to get the role?
—Zandee HDZ, via Twitter
Well, let's see: Seth Rogen has dropped untold poundage to play the Green Hornet, while Meryl Streep gained 15 to play Julia Child—presumably with the aid of a nutritionist or doctor. Robert Pattinson and Team Wolf Pack are sporting some extremely screen-friendly abs, and ScarJo recently went from hot and blond to hot and dark auburn for Iron Man 2. That's what you mean by physical transformation, right?
If so, and you're the type of person who gets way mad at tales of the rich staying rich, you may want to avoid reading this...
... because of course these superstars don't pay for any of it—the trainer, the diet food, the hair color, the wig, and on and on. Even Scarlett's Russian spy accent—if she has one, and her character, Black Widow, is supposed to—would come courtesy of a dialect coach fully bought and paid for by the movie studio or producers. That is, as long as one condition is met: The change that the actor makes has to be for a specific part in a specific project.
Otherwise, accountants say, even the most powerful superstar may have trouble avoiding a bill. For example, actors may see plastic surgery as key to their career, and at least one plastic surgeon has told me that some of those procedures are charged to agents, studios or managers. But not that often.
"Typically the celeb will be set up as a corporation, and all the cosmetic work that gets done is paid for by them, from their business account," says Dr. John Bonanno, a cosmetic surgeon based in Manhattan. "The celebs are trying to make themselves more marketable, and they realize this is a cost for their business."
One exception to that rule: reality shows, of course.
"We're preproducing a reality show on plastic surgery, so the patients get it for free," cosmetic surgeon Dr. Daniel Ronel tells me.
Can the stars maybe try to write that expense off on their taxes, then get even richer? Fortunately, no.
"The general rule," superaccountant Michael Eisenberg tells me, "is that plastic surgery is not tax deductible."
It sure can be priceless, though, right Ashlee?
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