Devon Sawa has joined the throng of actors sharing horror stories from the industry amid the SAG-AFTRA union strike, which has ground Hollywood to a halt.
Follow along here for real-time updates on the Hollywood actors’ strike.
Final Destination star Sawa, 44, reportedly took to Twitter on Friday (14 July) to allege that he was never paid for his cameo in Final Destination 5 (2011).
Sawa’s character Alex Browning – the lead in the original 2000 Final Destination film – briefly makes an appearance in the franchise’s fifth instalment using footage from the first film.
“I never got paid a cent for Final Destination 5. They didn’t even tell me I was in it when they invited me to the premiere. In the first contract for part one there was a section that stated they owned the footage and could use it in the future. I assumed for press. I was wrong,” Sawa wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted but was captured by ComicBook.com.
“This has nothing to do with the filmmakers by the way. I loved FD5. I love them all to be completely honest. And I’m super excited to see number 6,” he added.
The Independent has contacted Sawa’s representatives and Warner Bros for comment.
Devon Sawa— (Getty Images)
Last Thursday (13 July) marked a historic shutdown for Hollywood as actors guild members joined writers striking for a fairer deal.
SAG-AFTRA (The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) announced that its membership, comprised of more than 150,000 television and movie actors, would begin striking at midnight on Friday.
“When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, we have a problem,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in last week’s press conference. “We are being victimised by a very greedy enterprise.”
Sawa joins actors including Orange Is the New Black star Kimiko Glenn, Matilda child star Mara Wilson and romcom staple John Cusack who have shared negative experiences about the acting world in light of the strike.
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Both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are in dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the production companies.
The AMPTP says it presented a deal that offered “historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members”.
“A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the organisation added. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
Find out more about how the Hollywood strikes will affect viewers here.
