( 📸: Getty Images )
Cousins! Billy Porter says following the currently ongoing writer’s strike he’s been forced to make some difficult decisions as the uncertainty of Hollywood continues to unravel!
In a recently released interview, Billy claims that he has made arrangements to sell his home as a result of the actor’s strike. “I have to sell my house. Yeah! Because we’re on strike. And I don’t know when we’re gonna go back. The life of an artist, until you make f**k you money–which I haven’t made yet—is still check to check.”
The Emmy award-winning actor says that he was scheduled to begin filming a new television show and film in September but everything has been put on hold due to the strict.
“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.”
According to The Guardian, further within the interview, Billy took a moment to address a television interview pertaining to Disney CEO Bob Iger and his comments made in regard to the writer’s strike as he declared actor’s and writer’s demands as being “unrealistic.”
“In the late 50s, early 60s, when they structured a way for artists to be compensated properly through residual [payments], it allowed for the two percent of working actors – and there are 150,000 people in our union – who work consistently … Then streaming came in,” said the 53 year old.
“There’s no contract for it … And they don’t have to be transparent with the numbers – it’s not Nielsen ratings anymore. The streaming companies are notoriously opaque with their viewership figures. The business has evolved. So the contract has to evolve and change, period. To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day?”
“ I don’t have any words for it, but: f*k you,”. Billy directed towards Bob “That’s not useful, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. I haven’t engaged because I’m so enraged … When I go back I will join the picket lines.”