Alex Honnold Reveals Shocking Truth About His Pay for Death-Defying Skyscraper Climb on Netflix Live
So, here’s a wild thought: what’s it really worth to watch a guy climb up the side of the world’s tallest building live on Netflix without a safety net? Alex Honnold, the fearless climber who strapped the world to the edge of their seats with Free Solo, recently scaled Taiwan’s 1,667-foot Taipei 101 and stirred up quite the buzz—not just about the stunt itself, but about the $500,000 Netflix shelled out for the show. Now, before you gasp over that number, Alex insists he was “taken out of context” when he called the pay “embarrassingly small,” saying it all came down to comparisons with mainstream athletes. I mean, climbing a skyscraper might seem like a walk in the park to him, but ask yourself—would you risk a half-million-dollar paycheck for the same view? Spoiler alert: I wouldn’t. Dive in to hear Alex clear the air and unpack the real value of risking it all, one grip at a time.
Alex Honnold, the climber behind Free Solo and a recent live stream in which he climbed the world’s tallest building, has spoken out about the amount he is paid for his stunts.
Honnold appeared on a Netflix live stream in which he climbed the Taeipi 1010, a skyscraper in Taiwan that is 1,667 feet high.
The US climber made headlines for this, with reactions to his viral stunt varying.
Whilst the average person questioned why on earth Netflix would be potentially showing a man fall to his death live on stream, those who had watched his previous climbing challenges such as Free Solo suggested it would be a walk in the park for the climber.
Alex Honnold clambers up skyscrapers and cliffs for a living (Instagram/Alex Honnold)
With this in mind it can be hard to judge how much the climber would make for the appearance, as the number of eyes on it were massive but it was a comparatively easy day out for him.
A viral interview with Honnold in The New York Times saw them reveal that he was paid a whopping $500,000 by Netflix for the climb.
In a new interview with Steven Bartlett for Diary of a CEO, the climber stated that he was ‘taken out of context’ when he said he was paid an ‘embarrassingly small’ amount to climb the building.
He claims that he had raised the idea that it was embarrassing that he was being paid ‘so much’ compared to other climbers, claiming it was actually the interviewer who then compared it to more mainstream sports stars, which is why he said it was ‘embarrassingly small’.
Alex Honnold spoke out in the new podcast appearance about his pay (YouTube/Diary of a CEO)
He said: “Like, I thought it was great. I mean, I would do it for free.
“Like I’ve paid the money to go to the observation deck [of skyscrapers] and see the view and it’s so cool.
“And I’m kind of like if someone’s willing to pay me to climb up to the observation deck, that’s freaking cool.”
Bartlett added that he thinks part of the discourse around his payment is that ‘people think he’s risking his life’, with Honnold responding saying: “That’s totally understandable. I get that. But I see it as like anybody going into the boxing ring.
“Particularly if they’re very mismatched, you know, like you would think that there is some real chance of grievous injury or like death, you know? It’s insane.
“And so I think people that don’t know anything about anything about climbing look at me climbing a building and they’re like, ‘it’s 50/50 if he lives or dies’.” He stated that, whilst there’s always a chance he falls, it was far easier than his other challenges.
Hannold revealed that he was no paid for Free Solo and explained his mindset around it.
He said: “Throughout my whole quote unquote ‘career’ as a climber, I basically have never worried about money.
“I’ve always just tried to do the thing and let it all play out at the end. And so I’ve done a ton of work for free over the years.
“You’re kind of like, ‘Oh, it’s part of being a professional climber and I get to go climbing and I’m up with my friends filming on a thing. You’re working for free. It’s fine.’
“But by doing all that stuff for free, like I never I never stress the day rate. Never, you know, I was like, I don’t need to get paid to go have fun with my friends on a wall.
“But as a result of that film, a year or two later, they wind up doing a photo shoot out there for the cover of National Geographic and so you just wind up in other things.”
There are a lot of things you could get me to do for $500k, but I’ll tell you for free, climbing a building isn’t one of them – so it’s hard to argue he didn’t earn that half a million.
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