Patti LuPone On Leaving Actors’ Equity: “They Don’t Know Who I Am Basically” – Report
Broadway star Patti LuPone is offering additional details on her decision to leave the Actors’ Equity union after completing her run in Company last summer.
“They accepted my resignation and told me that if I ever wanted to rejoin, I’d have to be approved,” the triple Tony winner tells People magazine in an exclusive interview today. “And it’s the perfect reason I withdrew from Equity. Fifty years to this year … I’ve been a card-carrying member of Equity, and they don’t know who I am basically. They just said, ‘Fine, but if you want to rejoin, we’re going to have to approve you.’ ”
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Patti LuPone Gives Up Actors' Equity Card, Won't Be On Stage "For A Very Long Time": "No Longer Part Of That Circus" – Update
LuPone announced via Twitter yesterday that she’d given up her Actors’ Equity card, writing, “Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.” The tweet was an apparent reference to last week’s controversy over Hadestown star Lillias White reprimanding an audience member from the stage, which drew social media comparison’s to LuPone’s history of similar incidents.
In a statement yesterday, LuPone said, “When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity.” A spokesperson for LuPone said the actor would have no further comment on the matter.
But today LuPone told People magazine that Equity doesn’t “support actors at all,” and added, “They’re just not good. And I just didn’t want to give them any more money.”
Equity has not commented on LuPone’s resignation from the union.
“I just thought, ‘This is ridiculous.’ And I don’t know when I’m going to be back on stage,” she said in the interview. “But then the best kept secret is that you can perform without being a member of Equity. Nobody knows that, so I don’t use their services. So, I’m not a member of Equity anymore.”
“I don’t think I will be doing eight shows a week ever again,” she said. “Not that I can’t, because that’s what I’m built for. I don’t want to.”
As People points out, Broadway productions can grant guest contracts, but nearly always require Equity membership.
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