Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might have played the anti-hero in “Black Adam,” but to many SAG-AFTRA members, he’s one of the real-life good guys.
With the announcement of an actors strike earlier this month, leadership within the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — or SAG-AFTRA — sent a letter to 2,700 of the union’s biggest wage earners asking for help to support other members while they walk the picket lines.
The sometimes Atlanta resident didn’t just make a donation though, he made the “single largest donation” since the foundation was created in 1985, a union representative said in a statement as reported by CBS News.
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation representative said it doesn’t reveal how much members donate, but it could confirm Johnson made a “7-figure” contribution to its Emergency Financial Assistance Program.
The nonprofit group is associated with the union but not a part of it. Actor Courtney B. Vance is its president, and Cyd Wilson serves as executive director.
During an exclusive interview with Variety magazine, Vance described his phone call with Johnson as “a love fest.”
“It’s like, ‘Man, you’re stepping up in a way that is allowing others to know the dire necessity of it,’” Vance told Johnson, adding he was heartened by the A-lister’s generosity. “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.”
Of the approximately 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, only a handful make the millions of dollars you think of when you think “Hollywood actor.”
“Only a very small percentage of actors make a living from acting, and an even smaller percentage are what we call movie stars,” Helen Rella, the head of employment law at New York-based law firm Wilk Auslander, told USA Today. “While it may be inconvenient for the public to have shows interrupted or delayed, those working in the industry to feed their families stand to suffer greatly. And that worsens with each passing day.”
Ashley Nicole Black, an actor and writer best known for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” told USA Today: “Celebrities are a very small fraction of our union. Most of us are what you call ‘working actors.’ You’ve seen us in movies and TV shows, we play neighbors on sitcoms, and cops in movies, dancers at award shows and in musicals. We may have one scene in the movie, or 10. We’re ‘that guy,’ that actor whose name you can’t remember, but who every time he shows up in a movie you know you’re in for a good scene. Most of us are middle class.”
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