LOS ANGELES — Before actors and performers hit the picket lines last week, Tom Cruise joined a SAG-AFTRA negotiating session last month to support the union's proposals for more protections against artificial intelligence and better pay and safeguards for stunt workers.
Cruise appeared at the June meeting through a Zoom call after the guild decided his expertise would aid their talks with film and television studios for a new contract, the L.A. Times has confirmed. No other actors of Cruise's stature had joined negotiations in such a capacity, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which was first to report Cruise's Zoom lobbying.
But even the star power of the "Mission: Impossible" actor, who famously does his own stunts, couldn't get the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to budge on their bids. After about five weeks of negotiating, talks with the studios fell apart as the guild's contract expired last week, leading SAG-AFTRA to call on its members to strike.
