Billy Porter forced to sell his house amid SAG-AFTRA strike
Amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, acting star Billy Porter has revealed that he’s been forced to put his house on the market.
The strike began in early July after it was revealed that SAG-AFTRA had failed to reach a satisfactory agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Until a deal can be made, many striking actors, like Porter, can’t maintain their previous financial freedoms.
“I have to sell my house…because we’re on strike,” Porter told the Evening Standard. “And I don’t know when we’re gonna go back [to work]. The life of an artist, until you make fuck-you money — which I haven’t made yet — is still check-to-check. I was supposed to be in a new movie and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening.”
Last month, an unnamed studio executive told Deadline that “the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses”. Porter then directed his words to that executive: “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 continued to explain that adjustments are necessary in actors’ contracts to accommodate the rise of the streaming medium. This shift in recent years has led to a situation where the immense popularity of movies and shows might not necessarily translate into proportional financial gains for the performers involved.
Porter also discussed Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently expressed concern over the “disruption” and “difficulties” the studio reportedly faces.
“To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day? I don’t have any words for it, but: fuck you,” Porter said. “That’s not useful, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. I haven’t engaged because I’m so enraged… When I go back [to the US from London], I will join the picket lines.”
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