Hollywood actors are officially heading to the picket line.
Members of The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists cannot make a deal with producers and will join the 11,000+ notable film and television writers starting at midnight.
“We are the victims here,” Fran Drescher, president of the union, said at a press conference on Thursday. “We are falling victim to a very greedy entity. I am appalled by the way the people we have done business with are treating us.”
“It’s disgusting,” she said. “They should be ashamed.”
SAG-AFTRA members are already taking the strike seriously. “Oppenheimer” actors left the film’s premiere in London on Thursday. Director Christopher Nolan told the audience that the cast has left and are “on their way to writing their picket boards”. The movie will premiere next week.
The failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers mean that film and television productions featuring actors will be halted immediately, essentially shutting down Hollywood. It will be Hollywood’s first tandem strike since 1960.
The actors’ union had already granted an extension to his contract, which was originally set to expire on July 1, and said it would not concede again.
Heading into negotiations last month, Hollywood performers wanted to improve wages, working conditions, and health and retirement benefits, as well as create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future television and film productions. In addition, the union is pushing for more transparency from streaming services about viewership, so that remaining payments can be made fair to what is seen on linear TV.
“You can’t change the business model as much as it has changed and expect the contact to change as well,” Drescher said.
The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May, is demanding higher fees and remnants, particularly when it comes to streaming shows, as well as new rules requiring studios to staff TV shows with a set number of writers for a specific time period. The guild also seeks compensation throughout the pre-production, production, and post-production process. Currently, writers are often expected to provide revisions or create new material without being paid to do so.
The WGA also shares similar concerns about the use of artificial intelligence when it comes to script writing.
SAG-AFTRA said producers were unwilling to offer their members a fair deal and have been working to delay negotiations.
In remarks for Thursday’s press conference, Drescher called the AMPTP’s response to the actors’ proposals “offensive and disrespectful.”
Her comments come after reports surfaced about tactics studio producers are reportedly planning to use against writers, namely that producers do not plan to try to negotiate with writers for several months. According to the reports, producers expect writers will run out of money and possibly lose their home and are forced to come to the negotiating table.
While the AMPTP has denied these reports, studio executives have remained candid about what they consider to be unreasonable contract requests.
“We as an industry have been able to secure a very good deal with the Directors Guild, which reflects the value the Directors bring to this great company,” disney That’s what CEO Bob Iger told CNBC Thursday morning, ahead of SAG-AFTRA’s announcement. “We wanted to do the same thing with the writers. And we’d love to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation they have that’s just not realistic. And they add to the set of challenges this company is already facing, that’s fair said very disruptive.”
Iger noted that the industry has not fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and that these strikes come at “the worst time in the world”.
“It’s going to have a very, very detrimental effect on the whole company,” he said. “And unfortunately there’s huge collateral damage for the industry, for people who are, you know, support services. I could go on and on. It’s going to affect the economy of different regions, even because of the sheer size of the company. It’s a shame . It’s a real shame.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
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