Billy Porter on the Costs of the Strike: 'I Have to Sell My House'

Openly gay actor, singer, and director Billy Porter said the financial stress of the ongoing strikes in Hollywood are forcing him into a position where he needs to sell his house.

The Hollywood Reporter relayed that the Emmy-winning "Pose" star opened up about the situation in an interview with UK newspaper The Evening Standard.

"I have to sell my house," Porter revealed, citing the ongoing strike as the reason. "The life of an artist, until you make fuck-you money – which I haven't made yet – is still check-to-check."

Porter also had strong words for Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose comment that the aims striking actors and writers are trying to achieve are "just not realistic" rubbed many the wrong way, considering how highly studio executives are paid.

"To hear Bob Iger say that our demands for a living wage are unrealistic? While he makes $78,000 a day?" Porter exclaimed. "I don't have any words for it, but: Fuck you."

"That's not useful, so I've kept my mouth shut," Porter added. "I haven't engaged because I'm so enraged." But, he added, when he returns to the States, "I will join the picket lines."

Porter pointed out how popular conceptions about celebrity wealth contribute to a disconnect between performers and other working people, telling the British publication that "one of the reasons I can't talk about the strike is because of the shit that I've seen some lay people write about us: 'Just a bunch of millionaires trying to get more millions.'"

Porter went on to say that it "hurts my feelings" that "people who survived a pandemic because they could turn on their television and watch us" would "discard us so quickly" now that actors are on the picket line, seeking agreements with Hollywood studios that take into account industry-changing shifts like the rise of streaming services and the looming possibility that AI-generated content could take work from flesh and blood performers.

Porter said that many people "think we're entitled. Meanwhile, we're getting six cent checks" as payment for residuals.

While Porter couldn't talk about his upcoming turn as James Baldwin in a biopic of the famous gay writer, he was able to provide a quick history lesson on one of the main issues driving the strike.

"In the late Fifties, early Sixties, when they structured a way for artists to be compensated properly through residual[s]," the Tony-winning star of plays like "Kinky Boots" and "A Strange Loop" recounted.

"Then streaming came in," Porter continued. "There's no contract for it.... The business has evolved. So the contract has to evolve."

Porter has released several new singles in the last few months, and he recently completed a tour for an upcoming album, "The Black Mona Lisa," due out in the fall. He's also starring in a new film, "Our Son," alongside Luke Evans. But with acting jobs on hold, he's simply not earning enough.

"I was supposed to be in a new movie, and on a new television show starting in September," Porter told the publication. "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," Porter added.

Porter's reference was to a report of an unnamed studio executive describing the studios' strategy as one in which the studios would hold fast while striking actors ran out of resources. "The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses," the executive reportedly told Deadline in advance of the actors' strike.

There are two strikes happening concurrently. The Writers Guild of America went on strike May 2, causing a shutdown of movie and television projects without completed scripts. That strike, CNN reported Aug. 7, is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) also went on strike last month, with their work stoppage commencing on July 14, meaning that projects relying on professional actors were similarly shut down, even if they didn't need the services of writers.