Neil Patrick Harris has revealed the astonishing amount of money he made for his role as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother.

Making ends meet as an actor can often be unforgiving, especially if you spend extended periods of time out of work.

However, landing a massive role in Hollywood could see you make enough to never have to work again, which is something that most of us could only dream of.

One actor who has certainly made enough to live comfortably is Neil Patrick Harris, who was one of the biggest stars on the CBS sitcom.

The actor, 51, starred as womaniser Barney Stinson for all nine seasons of the popular show, as well as appearing in a guest role in spin-off How I Met Your Father.

The longevity and popularity of the show meant it was a particularly lucrative one for Harris, with the actor revealing his staggering pay-per-week.

Speaking in an interview with The Howard Stern Show back in 2014, he revealed he was ‘well paid’ in the latter seasons.

When asked if he was happy with the amount he earned, a flabbergasted Harris replied: “Are you kidding? Yes I was happy with that.”

If you’re wondering how much he made, it was $250,000 (£191,400) a week by the end of his stint on the show.

However, Stern remained unconvinced over Harris’ earnings, saying that the while figure sounded ‘extraordinary’ for any industry which wasn’t showbiz it didn’t sound like a lot for a lead actor.

It’s also worth noting the show’s main cast would have been paid royalties and syndication during the latter seasons, which would’ve further inflated his earnings.

How I Met Your Mother was on air for nine seasons. (Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images)

Either way, it’s a huge amount of money to make.

Harris also went on to share further insight into how the How I Met Your Mother cast negotiated their salary, claiming his main co-stars were all earning the same amount.

“We’d gotten eight seasons out of it… this was an extra season, a fantastic final lap and why shouldn’t we be reaping the benefits of that,” Harris said.

“And I feel like everyone has proven their worth on the show, everyone is providing and deserves to get paid well.”

Compared to other popular shows, the How I Met Your Mother cast’s earnings was still pretty modest.

The actor seemed more than happy with his earnings from the show. (Michael Desmond/CBS via Getty Images)

For example, The Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki reportedly offered $1 million (£765,700) per episode for the final season in 2019, which is the same amount which the cast of Friends were apparently paid.

This figure was later eclipsed by Game of Thrones stars Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, Lena Heady, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage, who were said to have been paid $1.2 million (£938,200) per episode for season eight.

Baywatch was one of the biggest TV shows in the world when it was on screens from the late 80s up until the beginning of the 00s, but the stars have been discussing how they weren’t paid all that much.

The show had 11 seasons following a bunch of LA lifeguards and drew millions of viewers, but the actors have said they didn’t get paid what you might expect for such a high-profile show.

After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun is a new Hulu documentary about the series and some of the stars have been saying they were ‘freaking out’ when they saw what they were getting paid.

Nicole Eggert, who played Roberta Quinn on Baywatch, told the documentary how different things were compared to other shows like Friends.

She said: “Back then, what they were offering everybody was about $3,500 a show. Friends at that point, I think they were each making $1 million an episode.”

Some of the Baywatch cast revealed they weren’t being paid what you’d think. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

“There’s not one rich actor on Baywatch. Not one. That’s strange because the wealth is always shared when you’re on a hit TV show,” said Billy Warlock, who played Eddie Kramer in the series.

Fellow Baywatch star Erika Eleniak said she remembered ‘freaking out seeing my first paycheck after the taxes were taken out’ and wondering how she was going to live on the money.

Back in the mid-90s Baywatch scored the Guinness World Record for the most widely watched TV show of all time, as in 1996 it was pulling in an estimated global audience of 1.1 billion in 142 countries.

Despite this success the show was apparently made ‘on a shoestring budget’ according to screenwriter Michael Berk, who said they couldn’t afford to pay the cast high salaries.

Meanwhile, during this time in television Jerry Seinfeld managed to get his pay for Seinfeld up to $500,000 per episode and then a whopping $1 million.

The core cast of Friends were making a lot more. (Warner Bros. Television/Getty Images)

Over on Friends the core cast managed to negotiate higher pay deals until by the end of the show’s run they were making $1 million an episode too.

Depending on the prominence of the actor and the role there are some big bucks to be made in the world of television.

Eddie Redmayne is supposedly set to earn £1 million per episode to be in the Sky Atlantic series Day of the Jackal.

Neil Patrick Harris was earning £250,000 a week during the latter stages of How I Met Your Mother, and that’s just from his salary beyond royalties and other earnings.

Baywatch stars were able to turn their work on screen into other lucrative deals, but they were still well below other big TV stars at the time.

Outside of the main cast other actors have shared how much they make from being in popular TV shows, as Stranger Things actor Tristan Spohn played one of the test subjects at the Hawkins Lab.

He said he got about $15,000 from each episode of Stranger Things he was in, and that about $10,000 of that per episode was take-home pay.

The richest woman in the world is obviously already rolling in it, but her net worth has been given a nice £9 billion boost this year.

While the rest of us are feeling the pinch, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers’ wealth is only increasing thanks to her stake in one of the world’s most successful beauty brands.

The 70-year-old billionaire is the granddaughter of L’Oreal founder Eugène Schueller, and his work has managed to set her up for life.

Pascal Le Segretain/WireImage

She has clung on tightly to her 33 percent stake in the family business and has served on the brand’s board since 1997, while also holding the position of chairwoman within the family holding company.

As Liliane Bettencourt’s only child, Meyers inherited her mother’s fortune and the title of the world’s richest woman when she passed away in 2017.

According to Forbes, her bank balance has again soared since the beginning of the year to a staggering $92.1 billion.

She was previously sitting comfortably with a tidy $80.5 billion, but has now enjoyed an increase in her financial assets.

L’Oreal Paris has continued to outperform competitors, seeing the stock price increase by a whopping 27.08 percent.

The internationally recognised beauty brand has enjoyed an upswing in sales for the third-quarter, thanks to growth across Europe and a jump in popularity in the US.

Meyers was set to rake in even more cash as L’Oreal had expected a 14.4 percent increase in sales across China, but the firm instead suffered a 4.8 percent dip across North Asia.

This was blamed on the tighter restrictions enforced on resellers by the Chinese government, which has hindered L’Oreal’s travel retail business. But they still clawed back a 7.7 percent growth across the country’s mainland over the first nine months of the year.

EAN-PIERRE MULLER/AFP via Getty Images

L’Oreal still main ‘ambitious’ about becoming market leaders in China, which boasts a $78.9 billion beauty and personal care market, but are continuing to crack the market closer to home for now.

In Europe, sales saw a 16.2 percent increase, while they climbed by 11.8 percent in North America. £9 billion isn’t bad for a years work, eh?

Meyers has managed to cling onto her title as the richest woman on the planet for another year thanks to her success as a beauty mogul.

Walmart heiress and philanthropist Alice Walton ranks in second place, as she boasts a net worth of $60.6billion.

Picking up the bronze, you’d have Julia Koch, with a fortune of $57.6 billion – after she inherited a stake in Koch Industries from her late husband David.

Jim Carrey is one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood – and rightly so, thanks to all of the comedic genius he has gifted us over the years.

The Dumb and Dumber star, 61, has racked up quite the enviable CV over the years thanks to his leading roles in some of our favourite movies.

He has a horde of classics to his name – including the likes of The Mask, Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Grinch.

Carrey has managed to make us laugh, cry and sob, which is certainly the sign of a well rounded actor.

The comedian has been paid a fair few handsome fees for his talents and he certainly isn’t short of a few quid.

So it’s no wonder that after four decades in show business, he is thinking of hanging up his acting hat for good.

After his role in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which released last year, Carrey revealed he was ‘taking a break’ from the spotlight and was ‘fairly serious’ about the prospect of retiring.

He said: “It depends. If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break.”

Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Hopefully, someone can pull some strings and that might be arranged.

But to be fair to the bloke, he’s happy with his achievements and has every right to enjoy the fortune he’s earned over the years – which is rumoured to be to the tune of $180million (£144million).

Although his more famous films have helped him rack up a fair bit of this amount, one of his more underrated roles secured him his biggest pay day.

Unless you are a die-hard Carrey fan, his performance in Yes Man may have slipped through the cracks during your binge-watching sessions.

But his role as bank loan officer Carl Allen ironically got him his largest wage of his career.

The 2008 rom-com, co-starring Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper, was based (very loosely) on a non-fiction book by British comedian Danny Wallace, and tells the story of a man who simply decides that he says ‘no’ a little too often.

Warner Bros

After a meeting with a guru, he resolves to say ‘yes’ to just about everything, leading to a set of hilarious, unfortunate, and serendipitous events.

The fact Carrey said ‘yes’ to the film paid off big time – as it reportedly netted him a whopping $30million (£24million).

As the actor has been around the showbiz block a few times, he realised that he could bag even more cash if he gave up his upfront salary in exchange for partial ownership of Yes Man.

Carrey took a huge gamble and is said to have taken a 36.2% stake in the whole profit of the movie.

The film went on to gross $230million worldwide, which Carrey secured himself a hefty slice of, according to Forbes.

He isn’t one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood for nothing – maybe he has a few tricks up his sleeve in the bookies too.