The union representing Hollywood actors announced Thursday its plans to strike, joining TV and film writers, who have been on strike since May. The last time both unions were on strike at the same time was in 1960.
“We are being victimized by a very greedy entity,” said union president Fran Drescher at a news conference in Los Angeles, referring to the studios and media companies that collectively bargain as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP.
The actors are represented by SAG-AFTRA, which stands for the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, two separate guilds that merged in 2012.
Here’s a quick look at what we know so far
—A strike means no scripted TV or film work from actors for the foreseeable future, but also no promotional efforts for their current, previous or upcoming projects. (Reality shows, game shows, soap operas, shows like “The Voice,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and docuseries are covered by a separate contract; presumably that work would be allowed.)
—That includes appearances at high-profile film festivals on the calendar in August (Venice) and September (Toronto). “For the unions, as we go into Oscar season, withdrawing the actors from promotional activities causes the studios a lot of pain,” an industry insider told Variety “Why wouldn’t they do that?”
—The strike means no award show appearances as well. The Emmys broadcast is currently scheduled for Sept. 18. That may have to be pushed (possibly to as late as January 2024) depending on how long the strike lasts.
The issues
Streaming has radically altered the business model for both television and film, to the detriment of talent on and off camera, making these careers financially unsustainable for all but the biggest stars — or those who are lucky enough to have jobs on long-running network shows, which can still offer meaningful stability.
“You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed and not expect the contract to change too,” Drescher said. “So the jig is up AMPTP. We stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee.”
—Residuals are one sticking point. Those payments can be fairly substantial in the case of TV reruns and syndication, but are pennies on the dollar for the same work when it’s available on streaming platforms (regardless of whether the series or movie is a streaming original or library title that has been licensed for a set period of time).
—Artificial intelligence is another big issue — and one that could theoretically put actors out of work altogether. SAG’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland dropped this doozy at Thursday’s news conference, relaying the AMPTP’s purportedly “groundbreaking” proposal: “That our background actors should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.”
Who is working?
—Many series and films have already halted production since the writers strike began in May.
—But some projects were still up and running, including three shows from Ryan Murphy. That’s no longer possible now that actors are on strike, as well.
—According to Deadline, two HBO shows that shoot overseas will not be affected by the strike due to the nature of the actor contracts: “Though a U.S. program, ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ has a largely British cast working under Equity contracts rather than SAG-AFTRA ones. Similarly, fellow HBO show ‘Industry’ operates under Equity rules and sources close to production say both shows are moving forward as planned.”
Actors got a taste of what they may be up against earlier this week when Deadline ran a story quoting an unnamed source weighing in on the writers strike: “‘The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,’ a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it ‘a cruel but necessary evil.’”
Meanwhile, a number of the AMPTP’s media moguls are attending the annual Sun Valley Conference, the so-called summer camp for billionaires in Idaho. Just to drive home the disparities that much further.
During a Thursday appearance on CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger called the expectations of Hollywood writers and actors “unrealistic,” which he found “very disturbing.” He went on to say the strike will have a “damaging effect on the whole business, and unfortunately there’s huge collateral damage in the industry to people who are supportive services, and I could go on and on.”
He’s right, there’s an entire economy built around show business. And it’s shrinking in terms of what most people are paid for their labor, and ballooning when it comes to executive compensation, mergers, monopolies and cynicism.
As more than one person has pointed out, if studio executives were genuinely concerned about the effects of a prolonged strike on the local economy, they probably wouldn’t be so recalcitrant about the issues at hand.
Because you know who doesn’t spend money at local restaurants and businesses?
Artificial intelligence.
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