Dwayne Johnson Contributes ‘Historic’ Donation to SAG-AFTRA Foundation Relief Fund, Says President Courtney B. Vance: ‘It’s a Call to Arms for All of Us’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson On July 13, as SAG-AFTRA leadership declared the union was going on strike, SAG-AFTRA Foundation president Courtney B.

Vance and executive director Cyd Wilson drafted a letter to 2,700 of the union’s highest-earning actors outlining the financial need that many would face in the work stoppage. “Having been through this during COVID and having such a great response from our own membership to take care of their own, when the strike was decided, Courtney and I sat down with our team and said, ‘Here we go again,'” Wilson tells Variety.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation (a non-profit organization associated with the union, but not part of it) worked to provide financial relief to many of the union’s 160,000 members via the foundation’s Emergency Financial Assistance Program, which will again be used to help actors during the strike. “We rely on donations and grants to provide services — we have been very fortunate that we raised enough money to be able to cover all of our programs,” Wilson explains. “But when we hit a crisis like this and we’re going to spend millions and millions of dollars in financial assistance, this is when we need our high profile talent who can afford it, who are in a situation to help others.” Shortly after sending the letter, Dwayne Johnson’s team reached out to say he wanted to help, so he and Vance hopped on a phone call. “It was a love fest.

It’s like, ‘Man, you’re stepping up in a way that is allowing others to know the dire necessity of it,'” Vance told Johnson about his contribution to the fund, noting that the exact sum is being kept private, but he was heartened by the A-lister’s generosity. “This is him saying, ‘In such a time as this, I’m here and