Melanie Lynskey has addressed "insane" rumors circulating online about her salary on the sitcom Two and a Half Men. The clarification comes shortly after her former co-star Holland Taylor spoke out about her own pay on the show.
Lynskey, 49, responded to a fan comment that detailed alleged salaries for cast members, including her own. The fan suggested she made between $200,000 and $300,000 per episode towards the end of the series. Lynskey stated that this figure was "wrong" and that she only appeared in 63 of the show's 262 episodes.
"I made literally one tenth of that stated number per episode," Lynskey wrote, explaining that she started at $20,000 per episode with a small percentage raise each season. She noted that most of her appearances were in the first two seasons. According to Lynskey, the highest paycheck she received for a single episode was approximately $43,000 in the final season, and this amount was before deductions for agents, managers, and taxes, meaning her take-home pay was around 50%.
Lynskey portrayed Rose, Charlie Harper's obsessive neighbor, on the sitcom. She expressed gratitude for the job, which allowed her to manage her mortgage, pay bills, and pursue independent film projects. However, she found the idea that she made millions from the show to be "ridiculous."
Her comments echo those made by Holland Taylor, who played Evelyn Harper, Charlie and Alan Harper's mother. Taylor, 83, revealed on the podcast Alchemy with Anthony Mason that she never received a pay raise during her six seasons as a regular cast member. Despite earning four Emmy nominations for her role, Taylor stated she was paid what she had earned on a series eight years prior.
Taylor described the situation as CBS "protecting themselves against giving me a raise of any significance." She decided not to renew her contract in 2009, opting instead to make guest appearances. She noted that her co-star Jon Cryer quadrupled his salary when his contract was up.
Cryer himself has spoken about the significant pay disparity between him and Charlie Sheen, who was the show's lead. In a Netflix documentary, Cryer stated he earned one-third of Sheen's salary. At the show's peak, Sheen was reportedly earning $1.9 million per episode, while Cryer made approximately $620,000 per episode. Cryer suggested that Sheen's escalating salary was due to his personal struggles and contract negotiations, while his own stable life resulted in a smaller pay increase. Sheen was eventually dismissed from the show in 2011 and replaced by Ashton Kutcher.