Apr 19, 2025 12:42 PM IST
A 13-year-old singer-actor not only refused to accept $2 million from Disney for an iconic film, but ended up making several times more.
In the early 90s, a million-dollar payday was a big deal for any actor. The biggest stars at the time were charging $6-8 million per film. This means that for everyone apart from the Bruce Willises and Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the world, a $2-million fee for a single film was a big deal in 1993. Yet, when Disney offered this sum to a 13-year-old with little acting experience, he rejected it. And yet, ended up making much more over the next few years. This is the story of Hollywood‘s boldest contract negotiation.
The 13-year-old who rejected Disney’s $2-million offer
Jason Weaver began his acting career in 1990 with an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s 1990 television series Brewster Place at the age of 11. He then played a young Michael Jackson in the 1992 miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream, before finding his big break as the star of the sitcom Thea. In 1992, he released his first single – I Wanna Be Where You Are – showcasing his musical talent. The same year, he was approached by Disney to be the singing voice of Simba in their ambitious animated feature, The Lion King.
In an interview with Vlad TV in 2019, Weaver recalled, “I remember it was like $2 million. Just to sing. That amount of money to an average middle-class family in Chicago in the early 90s – I mean, that’s something.” However, the youngster’s mother, Marilyn ‘Kitty’ Haywood, was having none of it. She rejected the offer that would have made most mainstream performers scrambling for the dotted line.
How Kitty Haywood negotiated Hollywood’s boldest contract
Haywood was worried that a one-off payment would mean that even though Disney would continue making money off Jason’s songs, her son would never see another dime from the studio. “You gotta remember, they’re coming off of Beauty and the Beast. They’re coming off of Aladdin. Disney had bread. That was the thing that struck my mom,” the singer recalled in the interview. In the end, she negotiated a deal of $100,000 down payment with royalties for the rest of his life. While Weaver has never disclosed how much he has earned from the deal, given that the Lion King soundtrack sold 7 million copies, it has to be a lot. It remains the bestselling movie soundtrack in the US even 30 years later. Among the songs that he lent his voice to was the chartbuster Hakuna Matata, which alone has made him millions.
The film itself made almost a billion dollars at the box office. Industry insiders say that in the three decades since, Weaver has easily made ‘several times more’ than the $2 million he was being paid, and he has his mother to thank for it.
