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James Cromwell, the Oscar-nominated actor whose credits include “Babe,” “Succession,” and several “Star Trek” appearances, staged a “glue-in” of sorts on Tuesday, May 10, at a Starbucks in New York City, according to multiple reports, including in The Washington Post, CNN, Deadline, NBC and the Associated Press. The actor and longtime activist, who was joined by fellow PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) members, was protesting what he termed a “senseless upcharge” for vegan, non-dairy milk.
Cromwell and one other protester sat on a counter and each superglued a hand to it, as other activists held signs decrying the coffee chain’s policy. The 82-year-old Cromwell, who — in a video of the protest live-streamed by PETA — can be seen wearing a “Free the Animals” tee-shirt and initially reading a statement from a sheet of paper. “Will you stop charging more for vegan milk?” he asked, moments later no longer relying on the sheet of paper. “When will you stop raking in huge profits while customers, animals, and the environment suffer? When will you stop penalizing people for their ethnicity and their morals? A senseless upcharge hurts animals. We’re here to bring attention to the damage the charging of extra money does for animals and the planet and the people living on the planet.” He is then joined by other protestors who chant, “Save the planet, save the cows! Stop this vegan upcharge now!”
Video of Cromwell’s Starbucks Protest
According to the Washington Post, New York City police officers soon arrived on the scene and informed patrons that the Starbucks was closed. Most of the protestors left the store, followed by Cromwell and the other protestor who’d glued his hand to the counter — after they’d detached their hands from the counter. It’s unclear how he was able to safely dislodge his hand from the counter, though the Associated Press account asserts that he used a knife to do so.
“My friends at PETA and I are calling on Starbucks to stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks,” Cromwell said in a statement, according to CBS News. “We all have a stake in the life-and-death matter of the climate catastrophe, and Starbucks should do its part by ending its vegan upcharge.”
A Starbucks spokesperson, according to the Washington Post, responded with the following statement: “We respect our customers’ rights to respectfully voice their opinions so long as it does not disrupt our store operations. Customers can customize any beverage on the menu with a nondairy milk, including soy, coconut, almond and oat for an additional cost (similar to other beverage customizations such as an additional espresso shot or syrup). Pricing varies market by market.”
Cromwell, according to Deadline, became a vegetarian in 1974 and then adopted a vegan lifestyle as a result of playing Farmer Hoggett in “Babe.” The Associated Press described the actor as “a veteran protester who was charged with trespassing in 2017 for interrupting an orca show at SeaWorld in San Diego.” On his Twitter page, he refers to himself as an “American actor, Ethical vegan, Social change activist, That Guy!”
Cromwell, according to Memory Alpha, first joined the “Star Trek” universe when he guest-starred as Prime Minister Nayrok in “The Next Generation” episode “The Hunted.” He returned to “The Next Generation” to play Jaglom Shrek in the “Birthright” two-parter. He later guest-starred as Minister Hanok in the “Deep Space Nine” episode “Starship Down.” Perhaps most famously, he co-starred as Zefram Cochrane first in “Star Trek: First Contact,” and he reprised the role, uncredited and as a cameo, in the “Enterprise” pilot, “Broken Bow.” Using archive footage, “Enterprise” featured him again as Cochrane in the episode “In a Mirror, Darkly.”
Also, as previously reported on Heavy on Star Trek, Cromwell’s former wife, the actress Julie Cobb, guest-starred as Yeoman Thompson in the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode “By Any Other Name.” Cobb’s daughter, Rosemary Morgan, who was Cromwell’s stepdaughter during his marriage to Cobb, appeared as the character Piri in “The Chute,” an episode of “Voyager.”
Cromwell has almost 200 acting credits to his name, according to the Internet Movie Database. In addition to his various “Star Trek” appearances, “Babe,” and “Succession,” those credits include “Revenge of the Nerds,” “Babe: Pig in the City,” “The Green Mile,” “I, Robot,” “The Queen,” “24,” “American Horror Story,” and recent episodes of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” and “Julia.”