Billy Porter, the award-winning actor, singer, and stage star, has revealed that the ongoing actors’ and writers’ strikes in Hollywood have left him unable to pay his bills and he must sell his house.
In a recent interview with the Evening Standard, Porter said he is “enraged” by the financial uncertainty and lack of a living wage for creatives in the industry. He plans to join the picket lines when he returns to the US.
“The life of an artist, until you make fuck-you money – which I haven’t made yet – is still cheque-to-cheque,” Porter said. “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.”
The actor, who’s known for his roles in Pose, the 2021 Cinderella musical movie starring Camila Cabello, and his Tony-winning Broadway career, is set to release his new album The Black Mona Lisa later this year.
Many famous faces have joined the picket lines in support of the Hollywood strikes, including Bryan Cranston, Kevin Bacon, Susan Sarandon, Awkwafina, Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde, Will Smith, and Dwayne Johnson. Mark Ruffalo recently called on actors and writers to work together to make independent projects to cut out Hollywood’s “fat cats,” while Snoop Dogg canceled his Hollywood Bowl shows in Los Angeles in solidarity with the strikes.
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