Actor Billy Porter opened up about the financial hardships he is facing during the Hollywood strike by revealing he has to sell his home.
Porter spoke about the impact of the work stoppage during an interview with the Evening Standard in early August, and admitted he’s had to make some cutbacks to stay afloat amid the unprecedented strike action. Porter emphasized he had multiple projects in the works, but they’ve all ceased indefinitely.
“I have to sell my house,” Porter told the outlet. “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 fuck-you money — which I haven’t made yet — is still check-to-check.”
Billy Porter says he has to sell his house because of Hollywood strikes: ‘Starved me out’ https://t.co/WJXeOvpnzO pic.twitter.com/gDwvJVJa5e
— New York Post (@nypost) August 9, 2023
Actors who are part of the SAG-AFTRA labor union went on strike in July. They joined the Writers Guild of America, whose members had already exercised their right to strike back in May. Hollywood is officially on pause, and Porter said he couldn’t sustain his lifestyle without have any idea when he’d be able to get back to work.
“I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening,” he told the outlet.
Porter quoted an unnamed Hollywood studio executive who previously spoke with Deadline and alleged the studios won’t return to the table with the Writers Guild until “union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
“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 said. (RELATED: President Biden Halts Fundraising In LA Until Hollywood Strike Ends: REPORT)
The actor further discussed the issues at hand.
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“In the late Fifties, early Sixties, when they structured a way for artists to be compensated properly through residual [payments], it allowed for the two percent of working actors — and there are 150,000 people in our union — who work consistently … then streaming came in,” Porter said.
“There’s no contract for it. … And they don’t have to be transparent with the numbers — it’s not Nielsen ratings anymore. … The streaming companies are notoriously opaque with their viewership figures. The business has evolved. So the contract has to evolve and change, period,” he added.