LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jimmy Kimmel shares that amid the writers’ strike, two top actors offered him help with money.
The talk show host revealed during the podcast show, ‘Strike Force Five’ that his longtime friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck offered to help with finances and pay salaries to his 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' staff. "Ben Affleck and the despicable Matt Damon contacted me and offered to pay our staff for two weeks," Kimmel said.
Who all are on the 'Strike Force Five' podcast?
The podcast also features Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and John Oliver.
Kimmel who refers to 'The Martian’ star as ‘despicable’ as part of their long-running joke feud revealed, "A week each, they wanted to pay out of their own pockets our staff,” calling the two as ‘good people.’
“I felt that that was not their responsibility,” the 55-year-old host said that he refused their offer.
Damon at a red carpet event for ‘Oppenheimer’ earlier said just days before the strike that the step taken to safeguard the actors’ interest is crucial.
“We got to protect the people who are kind of on the margins," Damon said at that time.
"26,000 bucks a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance, and there are a lot of people whose residual payments are what carry them across that threshold. If those residual payments dry up, so does their health care, and that’s absolutely unacceptable," he added.
How close was Jimmy Kimmel to retiring as a TV host?
Over the podcast, Kimmel revealed that he was planning on retiring as a host of the show he had been part of since 2003.
“I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started,” Kimmel said. “And now I realize, oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work.”
“When you are working you think about not working,” Kimmel explained, reports People.
Meyers then asked, “Kimmel, c’mon, you are the Tom Brady of late night … you have feigned retirement… Are we to take you at your word?” Kimmel replied, “I was serious. I was very, very serious.”
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown showed her support and said, "Now where are my comfy sneaks and shade hat?" she wrote in one post while responding to Sheryl Lee Ralph's post announcing that the union's contract had expired.
The 'Disenchanted' star further shared that she would be present for SAG-AFTRA's meeting to vote on a strike decision and shared a hashtag that read: "#UnionStrong."
