Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/87061
from the desk of ron perlman To My Fellow Actors: With any luck at all, we will all grow old. And, as is true of any industry, a few of us will have built up the war chest that will be needed to get us through those years gracefully. But, and this is true of any industry, the vast majority of us will come to need a modicum of help. Think about that for a brief moment, whether you're getting entry-level pay, working exclusively on "art" projects, or pulling down millions per picture. What is true for you today might not necessarily be the case forever. Take a moment to look around that set you are lucky enough to be standing on. Look at all those glorious artists that are surrounding you and what you may, one day, owe them. Well, fortunately, there IS an organization, THE SAG FOUNDATION, which has already gone to the trouble of thinking of all of that for you. I write this letter simply to share what I've discovered about the THE SAG FOUNDATION. I've been a proud and privileged member of SAG since 1976. I've always considered myself to be a decent member. Not great, but decent. Aſter all, I've experienced the benefits of membership through as wide a swarth of professional lenses as there are: low budgets – even movies where new terms needed to be invented to address how low these budgets could go; big commercial studio movies; network television series; and guest star appearances. I was even among one of the first to inspire and then benefit from SAG's Global Rule One: to shoot movies everywhere in the world. I was a decent and seemingly knowledgeable SAG member enjoying every aspect of the glory that our forbearers strove to provide us. But it was only in the last three years that I came to discover there is an independent organization whose primary purpose is the welfare of working actors. THE SAG FOUNDATION (www.sagfoundation.org) has been a vital support system to help fill in some of the gaps for members who have nowhere else to turn when work starts to become rarer and rarer just as health issues become more front and center. In fact, THE SAG FOUNDATION manages to do this SO anonymously that even I, a decent, longstanding member of the guild, didn't know of its existence. A wholly PHILANTHROPIC organization, THE SAG FOUNDATION also provides opportunities for SAG-AFTRA members to hone their skills and increase the knowledge they need as working actors through educational programming and access to the Actors Center. So I figured, heck, if I didn't know, there's gotta be a lot of other decent members in the same shoes. So, when something appears in your life having to do with an event to benefit THE SAG FOUNDATION, remember how one day it may turn out to be you that will benefit. At the very least, rest assured, it will be a good many of your brothers and sisters. I cannot express how proud I am to have been nominated to serve on the board of the THE SAG FOUNDATION. When I stop to consider my profound love for those of us who have chosen to do what we do, I couldn't think of a greater endeavor. SUPPORT THE SAG FOUNDATION! WWW.SAGFOUNDATION.ORG CELEBRATE THE ACTOR!