Billy Porter at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.Photo:Manny Carabel/WireImage
Manny Carabel/WireImage
This summer has been a financial strain on many in the television and film industry andBilly Portersays he has been forced to make a difficult decision to stay afloat financially.
“I have to sell my house,” he told the London newspaper theEvening Standard. “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.”
Like countless others, ThePosealum, 53, is in the midst ofa historical joint writers and actors strike.
TheCinderellastaralso slammed Disney chief executive Bob Iger for previously making remarks in which he claimed those on strike had demands that were “just not realistic.” Porter shot back, adding, “To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day?”
Billy Porter, a cast member in ‘Cinderella,’ poses at the premiere of the film.Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Porter continued, “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… But when I go back [to the U.S.]I will join the picket lines.”
He also responded to a widely shared quote from an anonymous industry exec published inDeadlinelast month who stated, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
“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,” Porter said during his conversation with theEvening Standard.
A rep for Porter did not reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Billy Porter, James Baldwin.Dominik Bindl/WireImage; Art SEITZ/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
In April, it was announced that theKinky Bootsartist would take on the role of celebrated author and civil rights activistJames Baldwin in an upcoming biopic. As the strike continues, the future of the project remains unclear.
Porter is currentlyone Oscar away from reaching EGOT status.
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source: people.com
