Actors who have made some moula for playing a cop, or any type of law enforcement in general, are donating some of the funds they’ve accumulated for these roles toward the Black Lives Matter movement in solidarity against police brutality. Actor Griffin Newman was the first to make this pledge, indicating that he once played a detective on a TV show about police officers and thus feels it’s the least he can do to pay it forward.
“I’m an out-of-work actor who (improbably) played a detective on two episodes of BLUE BLOODS almost a decade ago,” Griffin tweeted on Monday (June 1st). “If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I’ll let you do the math.” He attached a screenshot of his $11,000 donation to the Community Justice Exchange through ActBlue Charities, noting that “Blue actors should donate to Act Blue.” Plenty of users who have ever played a cop, even in a high school production, quickly replied to the tweet with screenshots of their own donations. Stephanie Beatriz, one of the stars of police procedural comedy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, replied to the tweet indicating that she was “on it.”
“I’m an actor who plays a detective on tv,” Stephanie tweeted with a screenshot matching Griffin’s donation. Her co-star, Andy Samberg, along with fellow actors who have “acted blue” like Ice-T and The Rock, were also tagged in Griffin’s initial post as a plea to follow his lead. Shortly after documenting her donation, Stephanie tweeted that there was “something coming” from the Brooklyn Nine-Nine team.
Showrunner Dan Goor later announced a $100,000 donation to the National Bail Fund Network from himself and the B99 cast in honour of George Floyd.