On the Hollywood Actor Strike

I’m not a member of SAG-AFTRA, but I support the strike fully. This is not about pretty people wanting more money. This is about the collapse of livelihoods for more than 160,000 artists — many of whom you have never heard of. Click-up economics — 300+ million people clicking all their money up on every phone and screen in the country, to the top tier of society — has turned the entertainment industry upside down. What was once just a circus is now a full-on lottery for creators and artists of all kinds — and a windfall for top execs and the corporations they head.

We’re all in this together. That’s what art and business are: collaborative. And the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA are saying, “No, we want a healthy industry where everyone shares in the successes they create.” There is no scenario where it is acceptable that execs go home with hundreds of millions of dollars while artists can’t pay rent. Plainly put, it is bullshit. Just more of the bullshit that continues to fester in a country that has not reckoned with the idea that we are one political and cultural body — left to right and, most importantly, top to bottom.

When “Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!” comes out on August 8, I hope every single actor, writer, and artist reads it. Yeah, I’m promoting shamelessly. Too bad. It is time for all of us to unsubscribe from the underlying ideas and beliefs that make any of…