Andrew Keegan Says 1-Cent Residuals Are Not Worth His Time
Andrew Keegan says andrew keegan has received 1 cent residual checks from some of his past movie and TV work, a payout so small he says it is not worth the postage. The 47-year-old actor said the checks sometimes cost about 40 cents to send.
“I think it’s really funny because I’ll get different [amounts for different] shows, obviously, but I’ll get 1 cent checks, and it costs like 40 cents to send,” he said on The McBride Rewind. “One cent is not worth my time.”
10 Things I Hate About You
“I think ’10 Things’ is the biggest residuals,” Keegan said, pointing to the 1999 rom-com as his strongest source of repeat payments. He starred in the film opposite Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, and it remains the title he singled out first when describing where the checks still come from.
He said those residuals can also land at $10, $20, $50 or $80, a spread that shows how uneven the payments from older film and television work can be. Keegan also appeared on 7th Heaven from 1997 to 2002, Party of Five from 1997 to 1998, Related from 2005 to 2006 and CSI: New York in 2010, along with a role in Independence Day in 1996 and The Broken Hearts Club in 2000.
Pintauro and Sweetin
Danny Pintauro recently said he gets 5 to 6 cents per episode from Who’s the Boss?, the sitcom that aired from 1984 to 1992, while Jodie Sweetin said she got a 1 cent check the other day. Sweetin added that there is no syndication anymore because it is all in streaming, which leaves Keegan’s comments sitting in a larger pattern: recognizable titles can still send out checks that barely register as income.
That is the part actors keep running into. The old idea that a long screen credit automatically means a lasting paycheck does not hold up here, and Keegan’s 1 cent example is the clearest proof. For viewers, the practical takeaway is simple: classic titles may still circulate, but the money attached to them can be tiny.
