Actor Ron Perlman shared and subsequently deleted an Instagram video threatening a Hollywood executive.
Perlman's comments follow the current strike regarding the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ (SAG-AFTRA) announcement the union would join the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
This is the first joint strike between SAG-AFTRA since the 1960s.
Critics of the union joining WGA noted the potential for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to recreate actors' likeness without payment.
The Hellboy actor said "there's a lot of ways to lose your house,” referencing a Deadline report in which one unnamed studio executive said "the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses."
“One more thing before I get off here,” he said in a video. “The motherf---er who said we’re going to keep this thing going until people start losing their houses and their apartments, listen to me, motherf---er, there’s a lot of ways to lose your house. Some of it is financial, some of it is karma, and some of it is just figuring out who the f--- said that.”
“And we know who said that and where he f---ing lives,” Perlman continued. “There’s a lot of ways to lose your house. You wish that on people, you wish that families starve, while you’re making $27 f---ing million a year for creating nothing? Be careful, motherf---er. Be really careful, ’cause that’s the kind of s--- that stirs s---- up.”
Perlman clarified his comments in a follow up video saying he didn't "wish anybody any harm." "With the announcement of the actors going out on strike this morning, I took to Instagram Live to give a background of my experience as a guild member and to give some of my reactions to the current events while we find ourselves in this situation," Perlman said. "In the aftermath of that, there has been a lot of reaction, mainly because at one point, admittedly, I got quite heated because I was talking about a quote from one of the executives on the other side of the negations talking about how they planned to not even begin negotiating until writers and actors started losing their houses and their apartments." "You can imagine my reaction to somebody wishing that kind of harm on people in the very same industry," he continued. "I don't wish anybody any harm. I hope the a--hole who made that comment also doesn't wish anybody any harm." He continued:But when you start going around and saying we're not even going to bargain with these f---ing dickheads until they start f---ing bleeding and their families start bleeding... I mean, if you want to talk about some of the s--- that makes people so cynical and so pissed off with our current climate, I mean this strike is just sort of… it's a symptom of a struggle that's way bigger than the strike itself. It's a symptom of the soullessness of corporate America and how everything has become corporatized in this country.
Perlman has previously gone viral for expressing his opinion in social media videos. Last year, amid Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics, Perlman referred to Governor Ron DeSantis as a "Nazi pig."
“Good morning, Governor DeSantis,” Perlman began the. “Ron here. Um, don’t say gay? Don’t say… as the first two words of a sentence spoken by a political leader of a state in the United States of America?"
"Don’t say gay? Don’t f---ing say gay, you f---ing Nazi pig?” the Hellboy actor continued. "First Amendment. Read about it. Then run for office. You piece of s---."
