Billy Porter says he has to sell his house amid strike
Aug 10, 2023
Los Angeles [US], August 10 : Actor Billy Porter has been facing financial constraints due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood.
Thousands of actors and entertainers are striking in Hollywood and around the country with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) as they demand a rise in pay and residuals in the streaming era.
The strike has impacted Porter financially.
Speaking to Evening Standard, he admitted that he has had to make some cutbacks after some of his upcoming projects were put on pause when writers and actors took to the picket lines, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“I have to sell my house,” he 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. I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September. None of that is happening.”
The actor also referenced a report from Deadline last month that quoted an anonymous studio executive, who said studios won’t return to the table with the Writers Guild until “union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
His response to that Hollywood 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.”