Dwayne Johnson Makes 7-Figure Donation to SAG-AFTRA Relief Fund

Dwayne Johnson provided his help 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 Foundation’s reduction fund, which might ship grants of up to $1,500 per member. In different instances the place a union member is in severe jeopardy, a lifetime member might obtain up to $6,000 in emergency help.

The actual quantity of Johnson’s donation is confidential, however SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B. Vance stated Johnson’s workforce reached out after the inspiration despatched a letter to the union’s highest-earning members outlining the monetary issues different members will face through the strike.

“It was a love fest,” Vance, 63, advised Variety on Monday, July 24, recalling his telephone name with Johnson in regards to the donation. “It’s like, ‘Man, you’re stepping up in a way that is allowing others to know the dire necessity of it.’ This is him saying, ‘In such a time as this, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, whatever you need me to do.’ And that sends a huge message to other folks to do the same thing.”

The basis’s govt director, Cyd Wilson, advised the outlet that Johnson’s donation is the “largest single donation” the group has ever acquired from one individual at one time. (The SAG-AFTRA Foundation is a nonprofit that’s affiliated with SAG-AFTRA however is unbiased from the union.)

“And what is amazing is that that one check is going to help thousands of actors keep food on their table, and keep their kids safe, and keep their cars running,” Wilson advised Variety. “And it’s not lost on me that [Dwayne’s] very humble about this, but it is a way to get us started.”

The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has been on strike since July 14 over an ongoing dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The union’s choice 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 using synthetic intelligence in scripts.

“This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher stated in a press convention on July 13. “It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands — if not millions — of people all across this country and around the world. Not only members of this union, but people who work in other industries that service the people that work in this industry. … We had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.”

The simultaneous strike marks the primary time that each the actors and writers unions have been on strike collectively since 1960. During that strike, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG.

Tons of celebrities have proven their help for each strikes, picketing outdoors studios in New York City and Los Angeles. Other 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 incredibly fortunate positions as working actors having been on shows that found tremendous success in one way or another … but many actors in our position for years before us were able to live off of residuals or at least pay their bills,” she advised The Hollywood Reporter on July 18, including that she acquired “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 difficulty in an Instagram submit after becoming a member of the picket line outdoors Disney earlier this month.

“Ours is a fickle industry and in my 20+ years of being a performer, my career has ebbed and flowed,” Moore wrote. “I’ve had very lean years where I couldn’t get a job and those are precisely the moments when in years past, actors could rely on residuals from their past work to help them get by. The world and business have changed and I’m hoping we can find a meaningful solution moving forward.”