Air co-actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck offered to pay two week’s salaries to the Jimmy Kimmel Live staff as a mark of support during the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in the US, show host Jimmy Kimmel said on a recent podcast.
“Ben Affleck and the despicable Matt Damon contacted me and offered to pay our staff for two weeks. A week each, they wanted to pay out of their own pockets to our staff,” Kimmel said In the first episode of the Strike Force Five podcast, available on Spotify.
The podcast’s co-host and fellow talk show host Jimmy Fallon called the stars “good people” after hearing about their gesture.
However, Kimmel did not accept the offer as he did not feel that it was the responsibility of the actor to pay for his show’s staff, he said during the podcast.
The ongoing WGA strike kicked off on May 2. On July 14, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined the strike, adding to the Hollywood labour dispute. Besides Affleck and Damon, several famous actors came forward to show their support in various ways.
To support their staff during the strike, talk show hosts Fallon, Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have joined forces to start the Strike Force Five podcast. The proceeds from the podcast will be used to pay the staff of the The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Strike Force Five podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts. The first episode, titled Five Late Night Hosts Talk at the Same Time for the First Time, streamed on August 30. The second episode, A Second Episode About First Episodes, streamed on September 3. The podcast offers an insight into the late-night talk show world through the experiences of the five renowned hosts.
