Jack Black put on a show for a good cause as he stripped to his underwear and sang Taylor Swift at a fundraiser to support crew members amid the Hollywood strikes.
The School of Rock star was one of the performers on the bill at The Give Back-ular Spectacular! Show on Wednesday (25 October) at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. The event was held in support of film and TV crew members who are struggling financially due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes.
During the show, Black appeared on stage to perform a stand-up set. He swiftly ripped his off his t-shirt until he was just on stage in his pants and socks, before heading into the crowd to “work the crowd”.
“You don’t have to film [this] on your phone,” he told one ticketholder, before asking the crowd for “any requests” for songs they wanted him to perform.
When one fan suggested he perform Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero”, Black, 54, replied: “I know that one. Everyone knows that f***ing song.”
Back on stage, he proceeded to sing and dance to the chorus of Swift’s hit, with the lyrics: “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.”
One attendee shared the clip on Twitter/X with the words: “Watching Jack Black strip and then serenade us with Taylor Swift wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023.”
Black was one of the night’s hosts, appearing alongside Dax Shepard, Jeremy Allen White, Bryan Cranston, Lily Tomlin and Rachel Bloom.
The comedic actor has been repeatedly seen on the picket lines during the SAG-AFTRA strikes, which surpassed the 100-day mark last weekend.
Earlier in October, he was pictured picketing outside Netflix’s offices in LA, and was there in the beginning back in July in a “SAG-AFTRA strong” shirt.
On Thursday (26 October), the actors’ union will meet with the group representing major Hollywood studios, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), in hopes of ending the strikes.
Talks previously fell apart earlier this month after the studios said that the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it.
Black stripped off on stage— (Getty Images)
In a letter shared with members, the union said: “We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”
The studios returned with a new offer on Tuesday (24 October), which they have said is more generous than their previous proposal.
However, sources told the LA Times that the sides still remain divided, particularly regarding revenue sharing and residual payments on streaming services.
In September, the union representing writers, the Writers Guild of America, officially agreed to end their five-month strike.
