Sharon Stone is “being threatened” with the loss of an upcoming role for insisting that all of her co-workers be vaccinated, she said in a campaign video for the forthcoming SAG-AFTRA union election. She is running for a leadership position with the Membership First ticket.
“I’ve been offered a job — a good job, a job I really want to do in Atlanta,” she said, according to the trade publication Deadline. “That’s why my hair is standing on end … because the Producers Guild of America will not guarantee that everyone on our show is vaccinated before I go to work.”
She continued in the Socratic fashion, “will I go to work before everyone on my show is vaccinated? No. No, I won’t. Am I being threatened that I will lose my job? Yes. Yes I am. Will I lose my job if everyone is not vaccinated on my show? Yes. Yes I could. Will I stand up for all of us so that every set that we go on is vaccinated? Yes. Yes, I will.”
During the pandemic, Hollywood quickly created production protocols that, by and large, kept the cameras rolling. As the focus moves now from color-coded zones and masks to questions like, “is that grip vaccinated?” Stone’s concerns are likely felt by many on set. Other industries are getting on board with more stringent vaccine requirements, particularly with the spread of the Delta variant, and film and television production may have to follow. Walmart and Disney announced new mandates on Friday. For Walmart, all employees at their headquarters must get a Covid vaccine, as do managers who travel throughout the United States. Disney announced a similar requirement for all salaried and non-union hourly employees at its U.S. sites.
Stone also claimed that she lost her union health insurance “after 43 years in the business because of Covid,” in another video embedded on Deadline.
Healthcare isn’t the only Covid-related issue Stone is drawing attention to. SAG-AFTRA members need leadership that “negotiates for us in streaming services . . .as it exists today, not in the way that we were told, oh, it was just a passing, fancy,” she said. This talking point surely resonates as Scarlett Johansson goes to war with Disney over what Johansson’s legal team perceives as the “$50 million in backend compensation” she lost due to Disney’s pivot to streaming services.
Stone is running for a National Board Member position behind Matthew Modine and Joely Fisher with the Membership First party against the incumbent party, Unite For Strength. Fran Drescher and Anthony Rapp are at the top of that ticket, with the blessing of outgoing leaders Gabrielle Carteris and Camryn Manheim. We hope and pray for a mud-free election because we want everyone to be safe, and we love them all.
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