After watching Los Angeles become engulfed in flame over the last three weeks, Mark Duplass could not stand idly by. The “Morning Show” actor and renowned indie producer got to work quickly, promoting adoption applications for local animal shelters, underfunded GoFundMe’s and insurance tips for people who had lost everything across his personal social media accounts.
After a couple days, Duplass realized he could reach higher. He called out to Google on his Instagram, asking for Chromebooks to be donated to Los Angeles school districts forced to return to remote learning. He asked Nintendo to donate Switches to kids who lost theirs to the fires. He even called out Airbnb for making the process to seek temporary housing increasingly difficult for displaced residents.
Reflecting on his efforts, Duplass told TheWrap that they would never have been possible without the countless volunteers he’s worked with along the way.
“I found myself in this web of helpers who all have just first names in my phone. I don’t know their last names, and I don’t know where they live or what they do, but I know them intimately now,” Duplass told TheWrap. “At some point I’m going to need to meet them face-to-face and give them a hug and be like, ‘I can’t believe we went through this. Who are you?’”
TheWrap spoke to the actor and producer about his social media outreach, the support of his community and what other people can do to help.
What motivated you use your platform to make a difference during this time?
It’s hard to say exactly what it was. I’ve been a member of the Northeast Los Angeles community for a long time. We helped put together the nonprofit theater Vidiots in Eagle Rock. My brother and I have shot so many things in that area. We shot a couple of seasons of “Togetherness” over there. He shot “Transparent” over there. It feels like home to us, and in particular the Altadena community, I have a real soft spot in my heart for.
It really did represent a beautiful working class community, and particularly a historically Black community that was such a wonderful stronghold and special pocket of Los Angeles.
Coming up as an independent musician and filmmaker in my teens and 20s, you are taught this mentality of you don’t have to do things the right way, you just have to jump in and start doing things. So I didn’t feel like I’m particularly knowledgeable or equipped for disaster relief in any way, shape or form, but I thought I’ve got this social media account with a ton of followers, and I’m fortunate enough to work in an industry where I’m connected with some companies and some higher up individuals, so I started asking them for support, and a lot of them came through.
Someone had an idea of what these people who are displaced really need are gift cards because they need to be able to shop in small quantities before they have a big place to stay. They want the dignity and the autonomy to be able to buy for themselves. These donation centers are full, and they’re wonderful, but a lot of people don’t have places to put these things. So we started just buying Target gift cards … So we set up a PO Box, and people are just mailing in thousands of dollars in gift cards.
You have done major outreach to larger corporations through your social media as well. How have those collaborations panned out?
Google, Amazon and Uber so far have given big donations. Google came in with the Chromebooks. I have my small nonprofit organization, and we were not equipped to handle and distribute all those. Someone connected me with the larger L.A. school district foundations, the CAA Foundation helped me with that.
It’s a lot of me just on my cell phone all day long, checking my messages, and sometimes that’s talking with a massive sponsor at Amazon disaster relief, who is going to give us $50,000 worth of gift cards to donate to people, and sometimes that’s with Bridget Bradley, who is a mother of three, one of whom is a special needs child, who lost everything in her home.
I don’t want to make it sound like I have answers. I’m totally scattered and disorganized, but I’m just trying to do whatever I can, and somehow it does seem to be cobbling together.
Do you have any other partners who are helping orchestrate these efforts?
So many partners. I don’t want to be Pollyanna because the situation is horrific, but I have to be clear how beautiful it is that Los Angeles is coming together right now as a community that is not afraid to work 16 hours a day.
You can say what you want to say about Los Angeles. It is the place, traditionally, where you go to a party, and sometimes you see people looking over your shoulder to look for the most famous person in the room. But when things are at their worst, the city is clearly at its best, from my perspective.
You can say what you want to say about Los Angeles … But when things are at their worst, the city is clearly at its best.
Have you ever done anything like this before?
I was in New York during 9/11, and my roommates and I spent the week after that trying our best to be helpful in disaster relief efforts. I remember we spent all day at a Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the essential workers, and we got on this big party bus to bring us down to Ground Zero. We got there to hand out the sandwiches, like heroes, and all of the five star restaurants in New York had set up cooking stations, making incredible food for everyone.
But what I want to say to anyone who wants to make efforts is that’s OK. It’s OK to not be efficient at this time. You just have to dive in, and you’ll eventually start to find where you can be helpful.
There are a ton of people in the entertainment community who live in both Altadena and the Palisades. Do you have anyone that you know personally who has been affected?
We know a ton of people. Four crew members on “The Morning Show” alone, only one show that I work on, have been displaced, not to mention the relatives of many more people. I’m still finding out every day, because some people are being quiet about it for various and sundry reasons. Some people don’t feel that they want to take attention away from those who might have a greater need. Some people have optics that they’re worried about coming forward. There’s still a lot of work to be done about finding the people who have a greater need because they’re falling in the cracks. We’re doing our best, but I have a feeling that we’re missing a lot of people.
Any advice for people wanting to help?
Look at the GoFundMes. Take an extra minute to look at the underfunded ones, if you can. If you’re looking for those lists, come to my Instagram account.
Don’t feel bad if you’re not sure what to do and you feel overwhelmed, that’s OK. This is going to be a marathon. This is going to take a few years. We’re doing essential items right now. We’re going to need so many things, so I just try to remind people there’s a sword in your hand sitting there right now that you are uniquely able to swing. And when you figure that out, please use that for the efforts, because we need everybody.
What’s next for you?
I’m kind of not a filmmaker or a producer right now. It’s weird. I’ve thrown myself into this fully, but I do love my company, and I love what I do, and I’m going to need to return to it. We have projects that are in the middle of things that need us. Eventually I’m going to start looking for someone who can help me maintain these efforts in our nonprofit, at least part-time, so that I can still stay at the center of it but have a little bit more time to go to my other life and find a balance. It’s very difficult to think about balance when you see what kind of need there is right now, but I think that that’s going to be the next step – one foot in my life as a filmmaker and running a company and one foot continuing these efforts.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
