Actor James Cromwell glued his 82-year-old hand to a Starbucks counter to protest the price of plant-based milk.
A longtime animal rights activist and climate change enthusiast, the Babe and Succession star reportedly orchestrated a protest with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at midtown Manhattan Starbucks where he glued his hand to the counter due to the coffee chain’s extra charges for non-dairy milk.
Wearing a “Free the Animals” T-shirt, Cromwell sat on the counter and read out a statement ripping Starbucks for its milk pricing. The moment was streamed on Facebook Live.
“When will you stop raking in huge profits while customers, animals and the environment suffer?” he said aloud. Cromwell then glued his hand to the counter and “later used a knife to scrape it off.”
No arrests were made.
@chrissylenguyen Today Succession star James Cromwell superglued himself to the café counter at a Starbucks in New York to call on the company to stop charging extra for the vegan milks it has agreed are better for the planet. More: https://t.co/HV80Mei1C6 pic.twitter.com/d6ow4NS2Qx
— PETA (@peta) May 10, 2022
A Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement that pricing on the non-dairy milks varies by market.
“Customers can customize any beverage on the menu with a non-dairy milk, including soymilk, coconutmilk, almondmilk, and oatmilk for an additional cost (similar to other beverage customizations such as an additional espresso shot or syrup). Pricing varies market by market,” the spokesperson said.
Police arrest actor James Cromwell July 3, 2001 during a demonstration by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) at a Wendy”s restaurant in Tysons Corner, VA. (Robert Visser/Getty Images)
In 2018, during the height of Donald Trump’s presidency, James Cromwell called for “revolution” and for “blood in the streets” to stop Trump.
“This is nascent fascism. We always had a turnkey, totalitarian state — all we needed was an excuse, and all the institutions were in place to turn this into pure fascism,” James Cromwell said in an interview with Variety. “If we don’t stop [President Trump] now, then we will have a revolution for real. Then there will be blood in the streets.”
Cromwell later walked his rhetoric back.
“Not promoting violence, voting against it. You will never see me raising a fist. I’m a pacifist. My words were taken out of context. I’m worried about the blood of the dissent, protesters, more children shot at school, people shot while praying, for who they love and who they are,” he said.
Cromwell also served a weekend in an Orange County jail in July 2017 for protesting an orca show at SeaWorld in San Diego.
