‘You’ve already starved me out’: Billy Porter reveals he must sell his home due to greedy studios forcing SAG-AFTRA strike

What’s there to be said about the SAG-AFTRA strike — and the cartoonishly greedy Hollywood executives enabling it — that hasn’t already been laid out multiple times over? Bob Iger once infamously called the demands of the Screen Actors Guild “unrealistic” in the same breath that he deposits his daily $78,000 check, and studio heads are all but ready to keep these strikes going well after actors and writers alike begin losing their homes; indeed, a unique evil is afoot.

And while we’re sure he isn’t the first, Billy Porter has opened up on recently becoming one of the casualties of the studio heads’ aforementioned ominous threat. In an interview with Evening Standard, the Pose star — whose contributions to film, television, theatre, and music would make one wrongly assume he has a comfortable cushion — wasn’t shy about sharing his anger for the current state of affairs the creatives are finding themselves in at the moment.

“I don’t have any words for it, but: [forget] you. That’s not useful, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. I haven’t engaged because I’m so enraged. I’m glad I’ve been over here. But when I go back, I will join the picket lines.”

And, as mentioned earlier, he has one of the best reasons of all to be furious; the Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner has to sell his house, because as enriching as the life of an artist can be, financial stability is very rarely part of the game, especially when you quite literally can’t work.

“Yeah! 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 [forget]-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. 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.”

Let that shine an even brighter light on just how dire the straits are for creatives in Hollywood at the moment; it’s either accept an increasingly unlivable wage or risk everything, including what little income one already gets, for proper justice in the entertainment industry. If that isn’t the definition of bravery — especially with the ever-judgmental eyes of the public watching — then we don’t know what is.