Actor Paul Walter Hauser has opened up about his earnings from playing Mole Man in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, revealing how much of his paycheck vanished after taxes and other deductions.
It is rare for Hollywood actors to discuss their salaries publicly, but Hauser chose to share details in an interview with Vulture. He explained why he has taken on so many projects over the years.
Since 2018, Hauser has averaged about three movies a year while also appearing in TV shows like Cobra Kai and working as a professional wrestler. His motivation is straightforward. He needs to keep working to keep getting paid.
For something like Fantastic Four, you make two or three hundred thousand bucks to play Mole Man.
Even so, that figure was not what actually landed in his bank account. Hauser broke down the deductions.
Then there is taxes, agent 10%, manager 10%, lawyer 10%, I give 5% to a business manager, and then I grew up in the church so I am always tithing something. I will give away some money to someone who needs it. At the end of the day, what looked like $250k is a lot closer to $136,000.
That is still a lot of money by anyone metric, he added, but it is not going to set you up for life.
Hauser called his role in The Fantastic Four one of his bigger paychecks, which helps explain why he juggles so many projects.
There is a reason I do a s*** ton of movies and it is because I have to keep doing them, as I am not getting paid on a Springsteen or a Fantastic Four what I am getting paid on The Luckiest Man in America or Balls Up.
Here, he was referring to his supporting role in the Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, as well as two lower-budget films.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps includes several scenes with Hauser as Mole Man, though Marvel trimmed much of his role during editing. The studio also cut John Malkovich’s villain Red Ghost completely from the final cut. This aligns with Marvel’s broader approach to refining narratives, similar to how they are reinventing X-Men via darker storylines in other projects.
Marvel has not confirmed whether The Fantastic Four will get a standalone sequel, but Hauser already has other projects in the works. He will next appear in Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil reboot, and he will play the owner of Scooby-Doo in Netflix’s upcoming live-action series. These roles highlight the actor’s versatility as Marvel continues to expand its multimedia presence, from films to games like the official Winter Soldier narrative trailer.
