(This is all speculation, hopefully someone closer to Hollywood might explain for real.)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — American Horror Story
hanonondricek — 9 years ago(November 15, 2016 05:50 AM)
(This is all speculation, hopefully someone closer to Hollywood might explain for real.)
I might imagine certain regulars probably get a fixed amount for the entire season, but usually series are paid by episode. I remember the Friends cast negotiating for 1mil/episode. However, they did like 35+ episodes a season instead of 10-13.
I think AHS is probably filmed more like a movie though. Meaning if someone plays a role that's not in every episode they probably do all their scenes at once so they're only busy for a week or two, then the scenes are edited out into several episodes laterwhich could change depending on the editing process.
Very few filmed shows without an audience are done in order like a live sitcom, which is rehearsed and performed like a play on one set.
Notable exception:
How I Met Your Mother
was filmed without an audience since the flashback/forward format meant they filmed heavily out of order which took longer than an audience could sit for, and wouldn't make sense to them.
Movie exception: Stanley Kubrick filmed
The Shining
in script order, which meant they had to have several soundstages occupied with hot sets standing ready at once, which held up the first Indiana Jones and another movie when production ran long. Normal movies try to visit each set/location once and do all scenes occurring there out of script order.)
(Another tangential aside: I saw a behind the scenes video where for one of the X-Men movies (I think?) the production paid upwards of half a million dollars to build a very detailed corpse of the actor because it was cheaper than paying him to be there for multiple days to just be dragged around by Michael Cera.)
Edited to add: It may also depend on the season. I was remembering how different episodes often have different directors, so AHS probably completes one episode at a time, although out of order. That's not what you asked, but that would support that people get paid per episode, which is why sometimes you'll see an occasional week where a character vanishes entirely; they didn't have enough for them to do plot-wise to justify paying to bring them on set.
For Roanoake, I bet all the interview segments were completed at once to save the actors time. So say Lily Rabe could have gotten a lump-sum for one or two days in a studio, then paid per episode when she was on location running around. It probably is all dependent on how the character is used and what their agent negotiates. -
Steal-No-Evol — 9 years ago(November 18, 2016 11:58 AM)
I I thought this was going to be some kind of joke.
Uhhhh.. something something Emma Roberts is moved to Scream Queens..?
I fail.
But from my experience, it's a check they would get from the production office.