“I ain’t impressed by a killa, I’m impressed by a hustler. who’s taking care of his MOTHER & his brother, & his significant other… put his 🥷’s in position, to show em he love em”
Jason Weaver says Disney originally offered him a $2 million upfront paycheck for singing young Simba’s parts in The Lion King, but his mom turned it down because the deal didn’t include royalties.
“Disney offered me $2 million upfront with no royalties just to do the singing parts. To an average middle-class family from Chicago in the early '90s, that kind of money was insane.”
“But after the initial excitement wore off, my mom asked, ‘Is that all he ever gets for the rest of his life?’ When they said yes, she turned it down and insisted on negotiating for royalties instead.”
“At the time, Disney didn't give royalty deals to relatively unknown kids, but my mom saw the bigger picture. She knew the franchise was going to make billions from theme parks, games, and merchandise.”
“So I took a much lower check around $100,000 just to secure those royalties. Giving up nearly $1.9 million upfront was a massive gamble, especially since my biggest paycheck before that was $80,000 playing Michael Jackson.”