John Cusack calls out “greed” in Hollywood
The American actor John Cusack has come out in solidarity with striking actors calling for fair wages in Hollywood, speaking out against the “greed” of the modern industry.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) joined industry screenwriters in their strike for fairer pay on July 13th, with countless productions shutting down production as a result. Such marks the most significant strike action since 1960, with Cusack supporting his peers by sharing his views on social media.
The star of 1989’s Say Anything stated: “The greed is almost a legendary comic trope – one fun fact – when I was a youngin- I did a film (with a boombox ) and somehow I got points – net not gross”.
Posting his thoughts beside a video of Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher speaking her thoughts, he continued: “Never expected to see any money – but the film became quite famous – so about 10 years ago – I looked again at the financial statements they were obligated to report – and to my shock – they claimed they had lost 44 million dollars on the film – I thought wow, I almost bankrupted Fox! (not really)”.
Concluding his thoughts, he added: “The film cost about 13 million to make – and money spent to release was minimal at the time – 30 years in – that film lost millions every year ! A neat accounting trick don’t ya think?”.
On July 13th, the cast of Christopher Nolan’s new biopic, Oppenheimer, walked out of the UK premiere in solidarity with their Sag-Aftra peers.
Take a look at Cusack’s post below.
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