Actor and SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher went viral for blasting Hollywood executives for failing to avoid a strike and produce a new labor contract for actors in an impassioned speech Thursday. Drescher strongly emphasized that actors are being "victimized by a greedy entity."
"The Nanny" veteran's speech fired up the 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members going on strike after 98% of the union's membership authorized the action in June. The actors will join the Writers Guild of America, which began its strike on May 2, with dual work stoppages creating the biggest shutdown in Hollywood since the 1960s. (Salon's unionized employees are represented by the WGA East.)
Drescher fired off impassioned remarks about the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the entity that makes up Hollywood's largest studios (AMPTP), saying she was "shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us." She continued, "How they plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them."
Union and studio negotiations broke down Thursday at midnight when both entities could not come to an agreement after a 12-day extension ended on July 12. A rapidly changing industry learning to adapt to streaming services and advancing artificial intelligence has allegedly left actors struggling and working multiple jobs to stay afloat. The union is demanding higher compensation, including increases in residuals from streaming and health care coverage, as well as guardrails for the role AI will play in the industry.
Drescher said Hollywood executives were "on the wrong side of history."
"Because at some point, the jig is up. You cannot keep being dwindled and marginalized and disrespected and dishonored," she said.
