(CNN Business) – James Cromwell, one of the stars of “Succession”, stuck his hand to a counter at a Starbucks in New York to protest the chain’s extra charge for vegan milk.
The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, was a coordinated protest with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Cromwell is a long-time supporter of the group and serves as “Honorary Director”. He is seen in a video released by the organization asking Starbucks to “stop charging more” for vegan milk.
Starbucks charges about an additional 70 cents — depending on the city in the United States — for a dairy alternative, which includes soy, coconut, almond and oat milk. The chain recently removed the extra charge from its UK stores.
“My friends at PETA and I are calling on Starbucks to stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing vegan milks,” Cromwell said in a PETA news release. “We all have a stake in the life-and-death issue of climate catastrophe, and Starbucks should do its part by ending its vegan extra charge.”
The incident appeared to last about half an hour before police arrived to evict the midtown Manhattan cafe. Cromwell apparently scraped the glue off his hand with a knife.
“We respect the rights of our customers to respectfully express their opinions as long as it does not disrupt our store operations,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement.
PETA has long talked about this issue. Recently, Sir Paul McCartney wrote an open letter to the company’s former CEO Kevin Johnson requesting that his US locations drop the additional fee as they have in the UK.
Cromwell was also nominated for an Academy Award for his role as a farmer in the 1995 film “Babe.” He currently plays Ewan Roy on “Succession,” which airs on HBO. Like CNN, HBO is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
