EXCLUSIVE
George Clooney has enlisted the support of friends Matt Damon and Brad Pitt -- along with SAG President Ken Howard -- in his attempts to find a solution to the standoff at the Motion Picture Fund Home, he told WaxWord on Wednesday.
In a wide-ranging Grill from Hawaii where he’s shooting “The Descendants,” the actor discussed his desire to see a long-range solution to the funding crisis that has led to the planned closure of the fund’s hospital and long-term care facility.
“I have every interest in making sure we don’t forget whose shoulders we stand on,” he said. “If it means hosting a fundraiser, I’ll do that. “
His preferred approach, though, would be to leverage dues paid to the Screen Actors Guild for the motion picture fund home.
So what’s your plan to save the Motion Picture and Television Fund long-term care facility? You have people very excited.
It was late last year we started talking about an idea, I was looking for ways to get some funding. I suggested that one of the things that wealthier members of the union could do would be to take away the cap on dues.
To remove the cap on Screen Actors Guild dues and earmark the money for the MPTF?
Yes. You now have a cap of $6,500 – as an actor, you don’t pay more than that, based on $1 million of income. If you take that cap away, it would be $6,500 for every million. So it would come out of the (income) of the wealthier people.
And you think it is is something that the wealthier members of the community would pay?
I think they would, if it was targeted for the fund, if it were specifically targeted to help our retirees. And everyone I talked to thought that wouldn’t be that difficult. The people who got lucky in the union – the ones who got wealthy, and are paid very well for what they do -- most of them would be happy to do that.
Have you discussed this with your actor colleagues?
Yes, the guys – Matt Damon, and Brad (Pitt).
And they are in favor?
Yes, it would make sense, if they felt the money was going to the right place.
But there was a legal issue at SAG, apparently.
The bigger issue was whether or not it was legal. And Ken (Howard, SAG president) and the lawyers at SAG seemed to think there might be a legality problem. That’s been the main idea. It would’ve been a huge amount of rather steady income – not just a show that would raise some money and keep people afloat for a year, but something steady.
Why does it fall on you to fix this problem?
I believe the majority of people out there are actors. I’ve been to the retirement home, seen SAG members there. You look at them and you think, ‘They could certainly use a break.’
