Famed climber Alex Honnold made history this weekend, making his way up the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper — finishing the highest free solo climb of an urban structure in history. But according to a recent report in the New York Times, Honnold was only paid in the mid-six figures for Netflix‘s “Skyscraper Live” event.
“It’s less than my agent aspired to,” Honnold said of his payday. “Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount. You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170 million contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about.”
Of course, one of the reasons why Honnold didn’t demand a high payday may come in one more thing he told the newspaper: “I mean, I would do it for free. If there was no TV program and the building gave me permission to go do the thing, I would do the thing because I know I can, and it’d be amazing… I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m getting paid for the spectacle. I’m climbing the building for free.”
Variety has reached out to Netflix and “Skyscraper Live” producer Plimsoll Prods. Ltd. for clarification on Honnold’s paycheck for the special and why it landed there.
In a chat with Variety right after the climb, Honnold said he was at first a little apprehensive about the noise surrounding “Skyscraper Live” — including the thousands of people watching him in the crowd, which was a first for him — before eventually embracing it.
“Over the last several days, my perspective started to shift a little,” he said. “From like, ‘this feels kind of intense’ and I’m nervous or whatever, to actually feeling pretty excited for it and feeling motivated. I felt like there was a perspective shift of embracing the whole spectacle side of it. I was like, if I just wave at all the people on the inside and have a good time as I’m going by, it makes the whole thing more fun. One of the main challenges of the climb is the pacing. If you have to go really fast, you get tired, but if you take your time and you wave to people and you enjoy the experience and enjoy the views, you don’t get as tired. It makes the whole thing feel less scary. And so I was kind of like, ‘I’m just gonna embrace the experience and just have a good time, and it’ll make it all feel better.'”
Honnold noted that his life has changed a great deal since he became a household name thanks to the Oscar-winning doc “Free Solo.” And the notoriety has allowed him to make climbing his full-fledged job.
“I’d say I’ve basically structured my whole life around trying to find a way to be able to rock climb for a living,” he told Variety. “I love rock climbing. How do I get to live my life doing that as much as possible while still supporting my family? Miraculously, it’s working. I’m able to climb full time, and I’m able to support my family. That’s freaking perfect. I can’t ask for more. This whole project is part of that. I get to climb something that I’m proud of that’s this inspiring. I couldn’t ask for better.”
Honnold managed to climb Taipei 101 in one hour and 31 minutes. The “Skyscraper Live” climb, which started a bit after 8 p.m. ET (9 a.m. Sunday morning Taipei time) appeared to be mostly a piece of cake for Honnold, with a few hiccups: Mostly, he appeared to lose audio contact with his team at a few points — and most importantly, lost his in-ear music soundtrack. (Luckily, he eventually got it back.)
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