Barkhad Abdi: Captain Phillips Star Is Broke

Barkhad Abdi is one of this years major breakout out stars for his role in Captain Phillips. Due to his success, you would think Abdi is currently cashing in from all his success, but unfortunately, he’s not. Two years ago, Abdi was paid 65,000 for his role in Captain Phillips, but since then he has spent it all.

Captain Phillips had a 55 million dollar budget, and since then the movie has grossed $107 million domestically, and $217 million worldwide. However, Abdi hasn’t seen any sort of bonuses from the movie.

For this award season, it makes you wonder how Abdi has been getting by? It so happens that all the nice suits he’s been wearing for these events have all been loaners. Plus the way he’s been getting around to these events is thanks to a taxi driver friend of his that drove him around.

After Abdi finished working on the film, he needed to find work, so he took a job at a mobile phone store in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After the movie premiered, he ended up quitting and moving to L.A for the film.

Abdi told the New Yorker: “How I thought about it was like, when the movie came out reviews, either gonna be good or bad. Either way, I cannot be working here.”

Abdi is now 28, and he is planning on furthering his career in acting, and according to reports, Abdi has already bagged a role in a movie that’s called The Place That Hits The Sun, which is about a South African marathon runner who develops an unlikely friendship with a local bar owner. Hopefully, this will be another successful role for Barkhad Abdi, and he can get a bigger paycheck out of it.

Abdi wasn’t able to go home with an Oscar Sunday night, but he did win a BAFTA award for his role in Captain Phillips as Best Supporting Actor, and he was also nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award. The movie Captain Phillips was nominated for six Academy Awards, but it didn’t win a single Oscar.

Barkhad Abdi lived in Somalia and Yemen before immigrating to the U.S in 1999 when he was 14. Abdi was working as a limo driver for his brothers company in Minneapolis, and that’s when he saw an open casting call for a Tom Hanks movie that he had to try out for. Abdi auditioned with three of his friends, and they all ended up being cast in the film. Barkhad Abdi is a breakout star, and we all can’t wait to see what he does next in his career.