Brooke Shields is running for president of Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union that represents about 51,000 actors and stage managers.
Shields said in a YouTube video that while working on Broadway — five leading roles as a replacement, most recently Morticia Addams in The Addams Family in 2011 — she discovered a “bigger purpose.” “Whatever the fight was, I realized that I could get the ear of the producer, and I could speak up for the cast members,” Shields said. “And as president of the Association, I can do that for all the members.”
Shields is one of three candidates for president listed in the member portal of the Actors’ Equity website. The 58-year-old actress, model and podcaster said in the video — which is light on specifics — that she’d exploit her celebrity to lobby for more government funding of the arts. “I want to use all of the good will and the advantages that I have built up in my career over the years to be able to grow the value of being an Equity member.”
She’s seeking to run a union energized by a resurgent labor movement and the nine-year tenure of Kate Shindle, who isn’t seeking re-election. The president, a demanding unpaid position, oversees the management and direction of the union.
Equity negotiates hundreds of collective bargaining agreements, including Broadway and touring contracts that expire in September 2025. The union’s expenses in 2022-23 were $28 million.
Shindle held various volunteer positions at Equity before she was elected president in 2015. Shields, who hasn’t served in its volunteer leadership, is running against Wydetta Carter, a Chicago-based actor who is Equity’s 1st vice president; and Erin Maureen Koster, a New York stage manager who is its 3rd vice president.
Carter noted in her candidacy video that she’s the first woman of color to hold a national office at Equity in 40 years. Carter said she led the search team for the current executive director, Alvin Vincent, Jr.
Increasing opportunities for members is a priority, she said. “Organizing must remain front and center,” she said. “The number of contracts available for our membership remains too few.”
On her website, Koster detailed her efforts unionizing Broadway production assistant work, negotiating reproductive rights language into touring contracts and working on FairWageOnStage, a social media campaign that led to higher off-Broadway salaries.
“Upon assuming office, I will scale the transformative outreach and mobilization work I’ve been doing in my seven years on [the national] council and before,” Koster said on her site.
Ballots were mailed today, April 23, and must be returned by May 22, a person familiar with the election said.
