Billy Porter attends Storytellers during the 2023 Tribeca Festival at Spring Studios on June 15, 2023 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Tribeca Festiva)
The ongoing writers and actors strikes in Hollywood are starting to take a financial toll on entertainers fighting for fairer wages, from the rank and file to stars like actor Billy Porter.
“I have to sell my house,” Porter said during a recent interview with Evening Standard. “Yeah! Because we’re on strike. And I don’t know when we’re gonna go back [to work].”
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Porter, who’s won a Tony award for his role as Lola in “Kinky Boots,” starred in the FX series “Pose” and made his directorial debut last year with Prime Video’s “Anything’s Possible,” did not plan on having trouble finding work.
“I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening. So to the person who said ‘we’re going to starve them out until they have to sell their apartments,’ you’ve already starved me out,” Porter added.
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If Porter, an Emmy and Tony winner, is feeling the financial burden of the continued SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, it’s understandable that other union members would be feeling even more burdened.
“I feel like I’m subsidizing this strike with my savings in a way that’s starting to get scary,” one 35-year-old writer told NBC News, on the condition of anonymity.
“I wrote on an award-winning show last year,” she continued, “and I’m literally picking up dogs–t right now.”
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As the writers strike crosses the 100-day mark this Wednesday and the actors strike enters its fourth week, there seems to be no sign of a deal in sight.
US actor Hill Harper (L) and US actress Skye Marshall join members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild as they walk the picket line outside of Universal Studios in Burbank, California, on August 4, 2023. (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the body representing the studios, agreed to sit down for a meeting last Friday, but have still not agreed to resume negotiations.
“I’ve kind of lost everything, including my side hustle,” said 45-year-old stunt performer and Covid-coordinator Paul Varacchi, whose credits include “The Good Fight” and “Daredevil.”
Dana Morgan, another SAG-AFTRA stunt performer and actor who’s worked on “Dead Ringers” and “Madam Secretary,” said she and her husband have been surviving on their savings, and she’s currently on a waitlist for a job with Uber Eats.
Luckily, there is some relief. SAG’s Emergency Financial Assistance Program raised over $15 million in donations in July, from A-listers like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey.
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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports actors during crises, reportedly processed over 30 times its average number of applications for emergency aid last week.
“It’s a massive challenge, but we’re determined to meet this moment,” said the organization’s president, Emmy-winning actor Courtney B. Vance.