Dwayne Johnson makes “major, historic” donation to help actors during SAG-AFTRA strike

According to Courtney B. Vance, head of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation (a non-profit organization that is not officially part of the union but, among other things, helps SAG-AFTRA members with financial relief during hard times), Johnson made a “major, historic” donation to the foundation’s Emergency Financial Assistance Program right after the strike was called. How major and how historic? Well, nobody will say the specific number, but it’s in the seven figures, and foundation executive director Cyd Wilson says it’s the “largest single donation” they’ve ever received from one person at one time. So it’s pretty major and pretty historic.

Wilson also told Variety that Johnson’s donation will help “thousands of actors keep food on their table, and keep their kids safe, and keep their cars running,” explaining that most SAG-AFTRA members don’t even get paid enough acting to cover health insurance and have to work second or third jobs to pay their bills, so big donations like this during the strike can help them avoid “financial ruin.” Wilson also noted that it’s “not lost” on him that Johnson is being “very humble about this,” and that is worth pointing out.

The man is a former wrestler and has always been a proud self-promoter, so it’s nice that he did this good thing for striking actors just for the sake of doing a good thing (the SAG-AFTRA Foundation also hopes that this will inspire other rich actors to open their wallets, which would be good). Plus, we can all probably agree that we’ve been a little tired of seeing this guy lately, since Dave Bautista is a better wrestler-turned-actor and John Cena tends to be a funnier wrestler-turned-actor, but this could go a long way in making us like him again. Not far enough for us to reappraise Black Adam, but far enough that we might be a little more excited to see him in a Fast And Furious movie again.