Despite SAG-AFTRA’s promise to protect its members from discrimination, plaintiffs claim a blacklist of the unvaccinated has cost them their jobs.
Actor, stunt performer, and director Dorian Kingi says he hasn’t had a job in the entertainment industry in three years because of his vaccine status.
The son of stuntman Henry Kingi and Emmy-Award-winning actress Lindsay Wagner, Mr. Kingi became a Screen Actors Guild-American Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) member when he was 11 for a part in the 1994 film “Double Dragon.”
His last roles before he began getting rejected because of his religious exemption were in the field of “creature acting” as the ruthless bounty hunter Cad Bane in “The Book of Boba Fett” and as an extradimensional Demogorgon in “Stranger Things.”
Despite SAG-AFTRA’s promise to protect its members from discrimination, as well as the alleged expiration of its vaccine mandate in May 2023, Mr. Kingi, and others, continue to lose jobs because of an unofficial “blacklist” movie studios have made for those who haven’t taken the vaccine or kept up with the booster schedule.
“With the union’s overall stance on inclusion, diversity, and anti-discrimination, it’s just disheartening that there’s been no middle ground regarding this issue,” Mr. Kingi told The Epoch Times.
According to the SAG-AFTRA’s Constitution, the union is “committed to the broadest employment and involvement of our members,” regardless of—among others—race, political affiliation, and disability.
“We are proud to be a model of inclusion, democratic organization and governance,” its constitution reads.
But this must not apply to personal medical decisions, Mr. Kingi said, and because of the continued enforcement of the mandate, people have been pressured to take the vaccine and booster or get fake cards made just to keep a job.
Some of these people have been severely injured, he said, and some have lost their lives.
‘Neither Logical Nor Scientific’
Twelve hours after actress and SAG-AFTRA member Bekka Prewitt took the vaccine in May 2021, she began experiencing adverse reactions, some of which still affect her today.
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