Dwayne Johnson. George Pimentel/Shutterstock
Dwayne Johnson supplied his assist for the SAG-AFTRA strike with a large donation for union members who’re at present out of labor.
The motion star, 51, contributed a seven-figure quantity to the SAG-AFTRA Basis’s reduction fund, which may ship grants of as much as $1,500 per member. In different instances the place a union member is in severe jeopardy, a lifetime member might obtain as much as $6,000 in emergency help.
The precise quantity of Johnson’s donation is confidential, however SAG-AFTRA Basis president Courtney B. Vance mentioned Johnson’s workforce reached out after the muse despatched a letter to the union’s highest-earning members outlining the monetary issues different members will face throughout the strike.
“It was a love fest,” Vance, 63, informed Selection on Monday, July 24, recalling his telephone name with Johnson concerning the donation. “It’s like, ‘Man, you’re stepping up in a manner that’s permitting others to know the dire necessity of it.’ That is him saying, ‘In such a time as this, I’m right here and I’m not going wherever, no matter you want me to do.’ And that sends an enormous message to people to do the identical factor.”
The muse’s government director, Cyd Wilson, informed the outlet that Johnson’s donation is the “largest single donation” the group has ever obtained from one individual at one time. (The SAG-AFTRA Basis is a nonprofit that’s affiliated with SAG-AFTRA however is impartial from the union.)
“And what’s superb is that that one test goes to assist hundreds of actors maintain meals on their desk, and maintain their youngsters protected, and maintain their vehicles operating,” Wilson informed Selection. “And it’s not misplaced on me that [Dwayne’s] very humble about this, however it’s a technique to get us began.”
The Display screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has been on strike since July 14 over an ongoing dispute with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP). The union’s determination to strike got here two months after the Writers Guild of America additionally went on strike over points together with residuals from streaming content material and the usage of synthetic intelligence in scripts.
“It is a very seminal hour for us. I went in considering that we’d be capable of avert a strike. The gravity of this transfer just isn’t misplaced on me,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher mentioned in a press convention on July 13. “It’s a really severe factor that impacts hundreds — if not tens of millions — of individuals all throughout this nation and around the globe. Not solely members of this union, however individuals who work in different industries that service the folks that work on this business. … We had no alternative. We’re the victims right here. We’re being victimized by a really grasping entity.”
The simultaneous strike marks the primary time that each the actors and writers unions have been on strike collectively since 1960. Throughout that strike, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG.
Tons of celebrities have proven their assist for each strikes, picketing outdoors studios in New York Metropolis and Los Angeles. Different stars, in the meantime, have been revealing the small quantities they earn in residuals from streaming.
Earlier this month, Mandy Moore defined that residuals might as soon as maintain actors between tasks, however that’s more and more not the case.
“We’re in extremely lucky positions as working actors having been on exhibits that discovered super success in a technique or one other … however many actors in our place for years earlier than us had been capable of reside off of residuals or no less than pay their payments,” she informed The Hollywood Reporter on July 18, including that she obtained “very tiny, like, 81-cent checks” for streaming residuals for This Is Us.
Moore, 39, performed matriarch Rebecca Pearson on the NBC household drama, which ran from 2016 to 2022. She additional addressed the residual problem in an Instagram put up after becoming a member of the picket line outdoors Disney earlier this month.
“Ours is a fickle business and in my 20+ years of being a performer, my profession has ebbed and flowed,” Moore wrote. “I’ve had very lean years the place I couldn’t get a job and people are exactly the moments when in years previous, actors might depend on residuals from their previous work to assist them get by. The world and enterprise have modified and I’m hoping we are able to discover a significant answer transferring ahead.”
