A lot of people don’t seem to know that a bunch of older stars end up in poverty. Fame is fleeting. The glamorous role often doesn’t pay as well as you think.
Tales of Angela Landsbury insisting ageing stars get roles on Murder She Wrote so they could retain their medical insurance.
Every worker needs unions. Bit-part workers need A-lister solidarity. Being an A-lister doesn’t last forever.
Also it’s incredibly weird to be like “the most powerful bargaining chips shouldn’t get involved”. Like what is the logic there. The point of a union is that everyone stands up for each other. Why would you not want influential voices and in-demand service providers being on strike and talking about it. It’s like if a bunch of soldiers show up to defend a town and people are like “no, they moved away from that town for a while so they shouldn’t be on the front lines, they should go away and let the town fend for itself”. I do not understand the ‘too rich and famous to strike’ logic at all.
Sadly, there is a large part of the human race that thinks the goal of life is “amass enough money and power to stop getting fucked and start doing the fucking”, and they can’t wrap their mind around the concept of someone who isn’t getting fucked anymore* caring about the people who are still getting fucked.
*as if Disney didn’t deliberately and flagrantly violate their contract with ScarJo. Or Robin Williams, at the height of his career, for that matter. A-listers have stakes in this fight worth millions, and yes, they earned that money.
Even if success did make someone not care about fairness in their industry I don’t see why that would matter. Boots on ground is boots on ground. We want practical achievement in securing fair pay and treatment, not a sincerity contest.
I just don’t think Meghan has a leg here. She is a princess, no one wants to hear from her on strikes.
Meghan was a working actress for decades. She was a working royal for 18 months. She benefits massively from her show reaching syndication. She stands to lose depending on how Netflix negotiated residuals for Suits with it being out of cable reruns now.
Meghan knows what it’s like to scrimp and scrap for years. She was a working actress doing bit parts her whole 20s!
The fact is that honestly if she didn’t marry Harry, Suits might have been her biggest hit and again residuals would have a huge impact on her. She completely has a leg to stand on joining this fight. Just like she had one speaking up for BLM.
In fact, A-Listers NEED to be using their spotlight to highlight the strike and the working actors who make up the bulk of Hollywood who don’t make millions per movie. It’s important that people like Meryl Streep or Jennifer Lawrence or Matt Damon or Margot Robbie join the strike. A-list talent walking off set and refusing to take part in press and promo is part of what gives the Union huge bargaining power even if those elite actors are not necessarily hurting financially. But also, a lot of A-Listers also have huge stakes in the fight because it’s also about control of their image and their long term financial profit, too.
Meghan is a producer now with a new production company. If she wants top talent on her productions she needs to be ten toes down in solidarity, too.
Meghan was/is SAG. The Union protected her as a working actress, she can use the outrageous spotlight on her to stand in solidarity and to support working actors.
