In Brief:
- Actress Melanie Lynskey, 49, denied a viral claim she earned $200,000 per episode on "Two and a Half Men."
- She says she earned $20,000 per episode with 5% annual raises, peaking near $43,000, before deductions.
- Lynskey appeared in 63 of 262 episodes; Holland Taylor's comments about her own pay prompted the discussion.
Melanie Lynskey: Melanie Lynskey is setting the record straight.
The actress has shut down a viral rumor about her "Two and a Half Men" paycheck.
The claim said she earned $200,000 per episode. She says the real number is nowhere close.
Lynskey, 49, played Rose on the CBS sitcom from 2003 to 2015. Rose was the neighbor of Charlie, played by Charlie Sheen, and Alan, played by Jon Cryer.
She responded after a fan repeated the figure online. Lynskey called the number "insane." She said she needed to explain how wrong it was.
The math tells a different story. Lynskey appeared in only 63 of the show's 262 episodes. She says she earned about one-tenth of the rumored amount per episode.
Her starting pay was $20,000 per episode. She received a five percent raise each season. More than half of her episodes aired in the first two seasons.
Her biggest paycheck came in the final season. She believes it was about $43,000 for a single episode.
That figure is not take-home pay. Agents, managers and business managers take their cuts first. Taxes follow. Lynskey says she keeps roughly half of what she is paid.
Still, she does not downplay what the job meant. She called the money "huge" for her at the time. She was just 25 when she landed the role.
A couple of years in, she made a down payment on a house. The income covered her small mortgage and her bills.
It also gave her the freedom to take roles in independent films and build her career.
"I was extremely grateful," she said. She called the idea that she made millions "ridiculous."
Lynskey also put her good fortune in perspective. She noted how hard it is for most actors to make a living.
She had struggled for years before the show, so the opportunity meant a lot.
She has no complaints about her deal. The series was not hers, she said, and she felt fine with her pay. What bothers her is when the numbers get reported wrong.
The conversation began with a different cast member. A user compared the reported salaries of the cast with what Holland Taylor was paid. Taylor played Evelyn, the mother of Charlie and Alan.
Taylor recently spoke about her pay in an appearance on "Alchemy with Anthony Mason."
She said the show never paid her well. She said her salary matched what she had earned on a series about eight years earlier.
Taylor also earned four Emmy nominations for the role. She said she never got a raise. She noted that raises usually come in that situation.
Lynskey said that if Taylor was willing to discuss her salary, she would talk about hers too.
She also paid tribute to her former co-star. She called Taylor a legend and a queen who deserved many raises.
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