Morris Chestnut was just starting his acting career in the early 1990s when he got a chance to audition for the TV show A Different World. He landed a small part where he played a food server who greets students with a smile. When he found out the pay, he was stunned—it was $1500 per week. Chestnut couldn’t help but compare it to what the main actors like Dwayne Wayne or Whitley Gilbert were probably earning. His scene ended up being cut from the episode, but it gave him a reality check about the industry. He went on to audition for the show a few more times, once even seeing Martin Lawrence at an audition. In a separate podcast, Jasmine Guy shared that she was making $6000 a week for seven episodes when she joined the cast.
