On Wednesday, August 2, actor Courtney B. Vance, president of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, announced the organization has raised more than $15 million in the past three weeks for its Emergency Financial Assistance Program.
Among the biggest donors were the program’s patrons, who donated $1 million or more — including George and Amal Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness, and Matt Damon and wife Luciana Barroso.
In the announcement, Lovecraft Country star Vance added, “Thanks to the support of some of Hollywood’s top-earning stars, the Foundation is preparing to bring aid and hope to thousands of journeymen actors facing tremendous economic hardship.”
The work stoppages from both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes have all but shuttered production in Hollywood, leaving thousands of set workers, and working actors whose names one wouldn’t recognize, like a Damon or a Clooney, without paychecks.
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