The star revealed his frustration at the alleged pay disparity for the live-action sequel (Picture: Netflix)

Freddie Prinze Jr has opened up about his frustrations with the Scooby-Doo franchise, namely due to an alleged pay cut he took so that his co-stars could get their wages raised.

With 20 years behind him and the franchise, he explained he was left feeling ‘so angry’ when he was asked to take a pay cut for Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed in order for his costars to receive a raise.

Pay disparity between genders, particularly in Hollywood, has long been a topic of conversation.  

But the She’s All That star explained it wasn’t that he didn’t want his co-stars to get salary bumps, he just felt the studio at the time, Warner Bros, should be paying them, rather than his own wages being cut to make the difference. 

Prinze Jr starred as Fred in the two early-Noughties Scooby-Doo live-action adaptations alongside his wife, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne), Legally Blonde star Linda Cardellini (Velma), and Twin Peaks: The Return star Matthew Lillard (Shaggy).

‘I remember thinking, ‘Hold up, who’s giving them the raise? Me or y’all?’ Like we made you guys three-quarters of a billion dollars, you can’t afford to pay them what I’m making on this? Screw that,’ he told Esquire.

After taking a break from Hollywood, the star is back in the spotlight in a new Netflix series (Photo: Robert Trachtenberg/Peacock/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

According to the Esquire article, the studio allegedly released Prinze Jr.’s salary in a magazine to ensure he went along with the salary reduction. ‘My ego was so angry,’ the 45-year-old continued. 

With hindsight, however, he says he views the films differently now. Reviews were critical at the time they were released, but he says, he appreciates what they meant to fans.

The actor said at the time, he didn’t appreciate fully what the Scooby-Doo films meant to fans (Picture: Diyah Pera/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

‘All these people that had grown up loving those [Scooby-Doo] movies started reaching out…and then I got what I felt was a more accurate perspective on what that movie meant to people because I was no longer viewing it through the lenses of the studio,’ he said. 

Freddie and Sarah have been married for 20 years (Picture: Ron Galella Collection via Getty)

For those who don’t know, he’s also acting alongside his wife of 20 years, fellow actor Sarah Michelle Gellar in the live-action remakes. 

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The actor has been with Sarah, 45, since 2000 after meeting on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997, getting married in 2002, and revealed that laughter plays a big part in their marriage… that and the fact he thinks she might starve without him cooking for her. 

‘My mum was a chef and I learned how to cook, and I married someone who couldn’t cook,’ he joked on Australia’s Kyle and Jackie O show recently. 

Metro.co.uk has reached out to Warner Bros for comment

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‘I remember thinking, ‘Hold up, who’s giving them the raise? Me or y’all?’