Retire Big Oil: 500 actors and 280,000 letters to the SAG pension in five weeks
Five weeks after launch, 500+ actors have signed and supporters have sent 280,000 letters asking the SAG-Producers Pension Plan to drop Big Oil.
Hollywood's biggest names asked their own pension fund to stop betting on Big Oil.
- Client
- Sphere × Stand.earth
- Year
- 2025
- What we did
- Campaign, PR, Production, Website
- Result
- 500+ actors signed · 328K letters sent
By the numbers
- 500+actors signed the open letterActors, all members of SAG-AFTRA, who signed the open letter asking their pension plan to divest from fossil fuels.
- 328Kletters sent to the trusteesLetters sent by the public to the trustees who run the SAG-Producers Pension Plan, asking them to divest.
- 262Mcombined followers of recent signersThe combined social following of the actors who signed: how many people could see the letter from their own feeds.
- $100Min fossil fuel stocks in the SAG pensionMoney the actors' own pension plan holds directly in oil, gas and coal companies.
The SAG-Producers Pension Plan holds over $100 million directly in fossil fuel companies, the worst-performing sector of the last decade. We helped actors make it personal: an open letter from the people whose retirements are on the line.
The actors' own pension fund holds $100 million in Big Oil
The SAG-Producers Pension Plan, which covers about 65,000 participants, holds more than $100 million directly in fossil fuel companies. For actors who have spent years speaking up about climate, their own retirement money was quietly working the other way.
It is a weak bet, too. Over the past decade fossil fuels were the lowest-returning sector of the economy, behind tech, healthcare, utilities and everything else. The holdings cost members money as well as the planet.
And it isn't just SAG. About 99% of pensions and 401(k)s hold Big Oil, mostly without their owners knowing. A union pension, owned by some of the most famous people in the country, was a sharp and personal place to start.
Hollywood confesses, on camera: "I'm invested in Big Oil"
Instead of another report or another protest, we let the union's best-known members say it themselves, in their own homes and their own voices. The campaign opens on a self-recorded confession: "I've got to confess something. I'm invested in Big Oil."
Behind the film is an open letter to the pension trustees, asking them to get the plan's $100 million out of fossil fuels. The line that carries it is plain and a little cheeky: make Big Oil into small oil.
Every visitor gets the same three asks. Sign the letter, share a ready-made post, or record your own read of the script. SAG-AFTRA members and supporters who aren't members can both add their names.
Sign the letter
Add your name to the open letter asking trustees to divest the $100 million.
Share the post
Ready-made posts: 'Join me and 100+ Hollywood actors' to get pensions out of fossil fuels.
Record the script
Film your own read of the confession and add your voice to the film.
Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo and 200 actors signed on at launch
Retire Big Oil launched in June 2025 with Stand.earth, a few months after the Los Angeles wildfires. Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Rosario Dawson, Laurence Fishburne and Mark Hamill were among the first 200 signers.
Alongside RetireBigOil.org and the confession film came a social kit: quote cards, signer counts and posts actors could share as their own. Each card put a familiar face next to a plain ask.
Then the list kept growing. Chelsea Handler, Susan Sarandon, Ted Danson, Sally Field, Edward Norton, Julianne Moore and Joaquin Phoenix added their names, and the count on the site climbed past 300, then 500.
500+ actors signed, and 328,000 letters reached the trustees
More than 500 actors have now signed the open letter, and 328,000 letters have gone to the pension trustees from members and supporters. Recent signers alone reach a combined 262 million followers, so every new name carries the ask further.
The campaign also joined Stand.earth's Climate Safe Pensions Network, so the actors' push sits alongside other pension divestment campaigns. It gives members of any fund a model for asking the same question of their own savings.
There is no public decision from the trustees yet, so the letter is still open and the counter keeps running. The ask hasn't changed: get the $100 million out of Big Oil, and put the union's retirement money where its mouth is.
I’ve got to confess something. I’m invested in Big Oil.
Gallery
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