‘They discard us so quickly’: Billy Porter slams those dismissive of SAG-AFTRA strikes after actors helped people get through the pandemic

A word of advice: if you wish to pursue a career in acting, make sure that you’re doing it out of love for the craft rather than any aspirations to be a rich and famous celebrity, because if you walk into audition after audition hoping to walk away with the paycheck of your dreams, chances are you’re going to be deathly disappointed.

And here’s the kicker; even if you do reach unimaginable heights — heights that perhaps include no lesser honors than a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award — you’re still probably going to be in a relatively precarious financial position. Indeed, sometimes it seems as though our favorite television and film stars occupy a whole other plane of existence from us mere mortals, but as the world of streaming continues to underhandedly gouge Hollywood’s many creatives, it’s becoming clearer and clearer each day how necessary the strikes from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are.

But if you’re cut from the same cloth as Bob Iger and think Hollywood’s creatives are being unreasonable for wanting to be paid what they’re worth, make sure you clam up around Billy Porter, because he has no patience for anyone taking a swing at actors after their hard work was the reason so many of us mentally survived the pandemic.

In a recent interview with Evening Standard, Porter slammed the notion of the SAG-AFTRA strikes being a case of rich celebrities just wanting to be richer (Porter has to sell his house in light of there being no end in sight for the strike) while pointing out that if it weren’t for the work of actors — work that they’re getting residual checks worth six cents for — the COVID-19 lockdowns would have been a hell of a lot harder for many of us.

“But one of the reasons I can’t talk about the strike is because of the [stuff] that I’ve seen some lay people write about us: ‘Just a bunch of millionaires trying to get more millions.’ That bile from people who survived a pandemic because they could turn on their television and watch us. And they discard us so quickly. Because they think we’re entitled. Meanwhile, we’re getting six cent cheques. It hurts my feelings.”

So before you go whining that all your favorite shows and movies are being put on hold because actors refuse to work, think about what they’ve had to put up with for so long to bring those same shows and movies to you; if they’ve brought us countless hours of escapism, the least we can do is stand by their side in the fight against the studio heads and the AMPTP — the true villains of this story.