Dwayne Johnson Makes "Historic" Donation to SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund as Actors' Strike Continues
As the SAG-AFTRA strike enters its second week, the union has announced its largest-ever donation. Monday, officials with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation revealed Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has donated a "historic" sum to the group, one that helps SAG-AFTRA members financially in times of hardship.
"It's the largest single donation that we've ever received from one individual at one time," SAG-AFTRA Foundation executive director Cyd Wilson said in a recent chat with Variety. "And what is amazing is that that one check is going to help thousands of actors keep food on their table, and keep their kids safe, and keep their cars running. And it's not lost on me that he's very humble about this, but it is a way to get us started.
She added, "This is how we did this during COVID — some of the biggest stars in our industry stepped up. For him to step up like this is really going to get us started in the fundraising that we're going I need to do, because everything we're hearing and seeing, we feel we have to be prepared that this could go on through the end of the year. We're going to have to be able to help these people in the long run. We have 160,000 SAG-AFTRA performers and that's a lot of people that are going to need our help. This donation is the kickstart we needed in the first week of what we think will be a long haul."
There's no end in sight for both the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America Strikes, and some reports have suggested negotiations won't even pick back up until later this year.
"The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses," the report cites an executive as telling Deadline. Another insider called the strategy "a cruel but necessary evil." One executive told the outlet that strategy was agreed to "for months, even before the WGA went out" while another said that the studios are determined to "break the WGA".
More information on the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and its outreach benefits can be found here.
