American Pie's Seann William Scott Got Paid Way Less Than You Think To Play Stifler
1999's "American Pie" was one of the true pop culture phenomenons of the decade, earning some $235 million in box office receipts and spawning a whole franchise of sequels and spin-offs. One could certainly make the argument that Seann William Scott's performance as Steve Stifler, the profane clown of the core friend group in the movie, played a significant role in making the film a success. So, many fans would probably be surprised to learn that Scott was paid a (by Hollywood standards) measly $8,000 for his work in "American Pie."
The figure comes from a recent interview between Scott and Rich Eisen, which was reported by Deadline, in which Scott revealed his surprisingly low "American Pie" payday that was nevertheless a significant sum for him at the time.
"I remember afterwards I bought a used Thunderbird for like $5000 or maybe $6000, I'm like, 'Oh yeah, baby'," the actor recalled, going on to reveal an even more surprising fact about his financial situation following the receipt of his first "American Pie" paycheck.
Scott had to take a job at the Los Angeles Zoo
"I don't know what happened to the other $2000," Seann William Scott went on, "because I ended up having to work at the LA Zoo as a churro guy, so maybe it was even less than $8000."
Somewhere out there, a person who visited the Los Angeles Zoo sometime in between the filming of "American Pie" and its surprise blockbuster release surely remembers being sold a churro by Stifler. Some Hollywood journalist will hopefully be able to track them down to confirm this somewhat unbelievable notion. Although considering Scott's pre-"American Pie" jobs consisted of music videos, commercials, and one-off TV appearances, it actually might not be too farfetched to imagine him hitting the churro stand after filming what would go on to become his breakout role.
Fortunately, Scott was able to parlay his star-making performance into a career as a comedy leading man and much bigger salaries, including the $5 million Deadline says he earned to make the most recent of the "American Pie" movies, 2012's "American Reunion."