Billy Porter is one of the most influential and celebrated performers of the last decade, having won multiple Emmys, a Grammy, and a Tony for projects like Pose and Kinky Boots. But even he is struggling during these times when studios gobble up all the money, leaving little for actors and writers.
In a new interview with the Evening Standard, Porter opened up about his feelings about the current SAG-AFTRA strike, and what he thinks about major studios refusing to pay actors a fair wage.
Porter told the Standard that he’s tired of Americans viewing the strike as “just a bunch of millionaires trying to get more millions" and pointed out that he’s received six-cent residual checks.
Porter explained that the current residuals model was created in the '50s and '60s, and that with streaming, residuals have all but gone away.
“There’s no contract for it…and they don’t have to be transparent with the numbers — it’s not Nielsen ratings anymore,” he said. “The streaming companies are notoriously opaque with their viewership figures. The business has evolved. So the contract has to evolve and change, period.”
“To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day?” Porter asked. “I don’t have any words for it, but: ‘f*** you.’ That’s not useful, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. I haven’t engaged because I’m so enraged. I’m glad I’ve been over here. But when I go back I will join the picket lines.”
“I have to sell my house,” he added. “Yeah! Because we’re on strike. And I don’t know when we’re gonna go back [to work]. The life of an artist, until you make f***-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. 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.”
The SAG-AFTRA strike officially began on July 14, when actors joined the Writers Guild of America, who has been on strike since May 2.