The New York Times recently reported that in the U.S. there is approximately a debt of $1 trillion in student loans. But chances are that the majority of those students trying to pay off their school costs didn’t recently star in an Oscar-nominated film.
Whiplash star Miles Teller admitted to Vulture that he has yet to pay off the entirety of his student loans from New York University. The Florida native, now 28, graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of Performing Arts in 2009, but despite starring in a handful of box-office hits and critically acclaimed films, he still has some remaining debt.
“My business manager says the interest is so low, there’s no sense in paying them off,” Teller explained of his purely financial decision. “I can, if I want to have that badge of accomplishment, but until then I still very much have my NYU loans.”
It shouldn’t be too hard for Teller to cover his loans. His new film Insurgent brought in $54 million in its opening weekend, and the actor recently signed on to the Fantastic Four remakes to play Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic).
“I never pick anything based on, oh, this is what’s out there,” Teller told Vulture of his career decisions. “I don’t work for the sake of working. Everything that’s come my way has been thought out in terms of what it’s doing.”