The Rock’s ‘historic’ move amid Hollywood strike

Movie star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is putting his money where his mouth is, when it comes to the Hollywood actors’ strike.

US actor Dwayne Johnson. Picture: Jean-Baptiste LACROIX / AFP

Movie star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is putting his money where his mouth is, when it comes to the Hollywood actors’ strike.

Variety reports that Johnson, worth an estimated $1.2 billion, made an enormous private donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which will help provide financial relief to the union’s 160,000 members as they continue the strike.

Speaking to Variety, the foundation’s president Courtney B. Vance and executive director Cyd Wilson explained that Johnson’s donation came after they sent a letter to the union’s 2,700 top-earning members, pleading for donations.

“It’s the largest single donation that we’ve ever received from one individual at one time. And what is amazing is that that one cheque 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,” Wilson told the outlet.

The Rock has made a “seven-figure” donation to help members of his union who are on strike. Picture: AFP

Vance called the sizeable donation “historical” – and, while the exact amount has been kept private, Variety reports that it is a “seven-figure” sum.

The Rock’s generous donation comes as several high-profile actors have opened up about receiving tiny residual cheques for their work in successful TV shows.

Veteran actor William Stanford Davis shared one of his recent residual cheques on social media on the weekend – for just three cents.

“I showed this to my brother and he fell over laughing … it ain’t f**king funny,” he said.

Lest anyone think the tiny cheque was an anomaly, Davis also shared another of his residual cheques in another video posted to social media.

This time, the figure was slightly higher: A whole five cents.

“You see that? Can you believe that? That’s [five] cents,” he said. “The postage, the paper, everything costs more than that. That’s what they think of us as actors. This is why we’re on strike for better wages, for better residuals [and] for a piece of the subscription and to not give in to AI.”

Former This Is Us star Mandy Moore told The Hollywood Reporter residual payments were a “huge issue” while on the picket lines last week.

“We’re in incredibly fortunate positions as working actors having been on shows that found tremendous success in one way or another … but many actors in our position for years before us were able to live off of residuals or at least pay their bills,” she said.

Moore claimed she had received “very tiny, like 81-cent cheques” from the streaming residuals for the show, which ran for 106 episodes and was watching by millions of people in the US and around the world.

And several cast members of the Netflix hit Orange Is The New Blackhave spoken up, revealing that despite starring in one of the biggest hits of the streaming era, many of them had to keep their day jobs and receive virtually no ongoing payments for the series.

Actress Kimiko Glenn, who disrobed for several explicit sex scenes in the series, fumed about the lack of ongoing payment for her work.

Mandy Moore on the picket lines. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher speaks out. Picture: Getty

“Whether or not we got paid upfront — my tits live on in perpetuity. I deserve to get paid for as many f**king streams as that s**t gets,” she said.

And several celebs have focused their frustrations on Disney CEO Bob Iger, after he claimed unions were not being “realistic” with their demands.

Former The Nanny star and now SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called Iger’s remarks “repugnant.”

“I found [his comments] terribly repugnant and out of touch. Positively tone deaf,” she said.

“If I were that company, I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this, because it’s so obvious that he has no clue as to what is really happening on the ground with hardworking people who don’t make anywhere near the salary that he’s making.”

The strike has seen some 160,000 film and television actors join members of the Writers Guild of America who are already on the picket lines, in what is the first joint walkout between the two unions since 1960.

Members of both unions are demanding increases in pay and residuals to reflect the streaming TV landscape, plus guarantees they will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).