I think what always amuses me with Statham is that one of the key reasons he go the first role in Lock Stock, was because he had ended up being a London street vendor/black market salesman to make ends meet, and had managed to sell things to Ritchie.
It's one of those weird things. He got paid basically £5,000 for that first acting role. Then £15,000 for his role in Snatch.
Then he went to Hollywood.