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Played a cop? Donate to bail funds, urges actor Griffin Newman

With film and TV production shut down for the foreseeable future, many actors are relying on royalties from reruns and syndication to get by.

But self-proclaimed “out-of-work actor” Griffin Newman is using his own to help protestors raise bail.

Late Monday night, Newman, best known for playing moth-themed superhero Arthur on Amazon’s “The Tick” and voicing Jared Kushner on “Our Cartoon President,” tweeted about one of his deeper cuts: A two episode arc on the police drama “Blue Bloods.” Realizing he was still profiting off his against-type performance as a detective, he donated $10,000 to the National Bail Fund Network via the progressive fundraising platform Act Blue to aid those arrested in their protest of the death of George Floyd. While that exact sum may not be tied to Newman’s own brief turn on the show, he urged actors with hefty residuals to donate the money they get from playing cops or “acting blue.”

Others involved in cop series soon pitched in in ways large and small. Stephanie Beatriz of NBC’s ”Brooklyn 99” dug deep and gave to Act Blue, while actors who’ve had more modest turns as police also offered what they could.

This isn’t the first time Newman, who co-hosts the “Blank Check” podcast and was recently cast as Orco on Netflix’s “Master of the Universe” reboot, has raised social awareness — and donations — through his Twitter presence. In October 2017 the actor was among the first to express his regret for working with Woody Allen and announce he had given his salary for his role in Allen’s 2019 film “ A Rainy Day in New York” to the anti-sexual assault non-profit RAINN.

A few months later, his co-stars Timothee Chalamet and Selena Gomez also donated their money to Time’s Up and RAINN, while a groundswell of Allen’s former collaborators pledged not to work with the director again as the #MeToo movement gained momentum.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture fellow. He can be reached at grisar@forward.com

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