He made history but wasn’t paid enough
Famous daredevil Alex Honnold on Sunday successfully climbed a skyscraper in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, making history by achieving it without using a harness, rope or any safety equipment.
And he did this in only one hour and 31 minutes, much faster than Frenchman Alain Robert who dubbed himself “Spiderman”, as he previously made it to the top of Taipei 101 in four hours, and he did so with a harness and ropes.
Netflix’s Skyscraper Live saw him make history as he scaled the world’s 11th-tallest skyscraper and the free-solo ascent was performed live for a global audience.
Honnold says he would have climbed Taipei 101 for free, however he was paid money which is an “embarrassing amount”, according to the rock climber.
The 40-year-old spoke to The New York Times before the ascent, and was asked if the stunt marks the biggest payday of his career.
“Maybe. It’s less than my agent aspired to. 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 mean, just sitting by yourself on the very top of the spire is insane”, Honnold said.
“And so, you know, if there wasn’t the whole spectacle around it, and I just had the opportunity to go do it by myself, I’d be fine with that. I would do that, but in this case, there is a spectacle. I’m not getting paid to climb the building. I’m getting paid for the spectacle. I’m climbing the building for free”, he continued.
While he refused to disclose the exact amount of his paycheck, Honnold said that “it’s an embarrassing amount”.
When pressed further and the interviewer floated a $10m figure, Honnold quickly shot it down. “No!” he said. “So in that case, yeah – an embarrassingly small amount.”
The New York Times, citing two people with direct knowledge of the deal, said the climber was being paid in the mid-six figures.
This wasn’t Honnold’s first extreme climb in his career, as there’s a documentary about his ascent of El Capitan, titled Free Solo, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2018.
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