On a sweltering Wednesday morning last week, hundreds of protesters gathered outside of Netflix’s studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in support of the American actors’ union on strike.
The strike – hundreds of miles from Hollywood – is a sign of the growing importance of the film industry for the south-western state. Although it was barely 9am, the temperature was already hovering around 90F (32C). Still, Sag-Aftra was far from alone on the picket line: members of the writers, directors, crew and background actors guilds had all turned out in support.
“New Mexico has a very tight and strong film community and we’re all in this together,” said Diane Villegas, an actor, the Sag-Aftra media liaison and a lifelong New Mexican.
Although the heart of movie productions in the United States remains in Hollywood, a growing number are filmed in New Mexico – where tax incentives and rebates have lured production companies over the past two decades.
In 2022, a record 109 productions were filmed across the state. And in a July press release, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that “film, television and digital media production spending in New Mexico surpassed $2.2bn over the past three fiscal years”.
Over the past two years, Netflix and NBCUniversal – both companies represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), against which Sag-Aftra is striking – have significantly increased their presence in New Mexico. More than 1,100 Sag-Aftra members call New Mexico home, and many others have passed through the state to film movies, television shows and even video games, like Oppenheimer, Logan and Iron Man 2. Breaking Bad, The Avengers and Stranger Things’s season 4 were all produced in Netflix’s Albuquerque studios.
With Sag-Aftra on strike, production has paused on 18 major projects that were being filmed in New Mexico. (Work has continued on 12 projects not affected by the strike, according to the New Mexico Film Office.)
Actors say that the strike is vital – not only to ensure members’ demands around fair wages and artificial intelligence are met, but also to protect the future of the film industry in New Mexico.
Brendan Fehr moved to New Mexico about 12 years ago when he started acting in the NBC medical drama The Night Shift. He remembers that the film industry in the state was relatively small back then – the military and medical fields were much larger employers – but found it exciting to think about this new field that kids growing up in New Mexico might be able to enter. He hoped that it made a difference “for the young people and kids of New Mexico to have some home-grown talent to watch”. And, in one of the poorest states in the country, he imagined that the film industry “could really change lives”.
Shylo Molina was one of those kids who grew up in New Mexico as the film industry was coming of age; he was born just a few years before Fehr moved to Albuquerque. Now 14 years old, Molina stars in The Really Loud House, a Nickelodeon comedy show produced in Albuquerque. “New Mexico is becoming like the new LA,” said Molina. The strike feels important, he says, as a way to secure the work he hopes to continue in his future.
Sag-Aftra members in New Mexico have found support in other unions, including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Directors Guild of America.
“All the unions are supporting each other, and that’s very New Mexico,” said Villegas.
George RR Martin, a longtime Santa Fe resident, expressed his support for the strike in a post on his personal blog last week: “I joined the WGA in 1986 and have been through several strikes with them … this year’s strike is the most important of my lifetime.” Referencing Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher’s speech announcing the strike, Martin wrote, “Not much I can add to that, except ‘AMEN’.”
Many members of the Background Actors Association of New Mexico turned out at Wednesday’s picket as well. Background actors, or extras, face challenges in the evolving media landscape that Sag-Aftra is trying to address in its negotiations around artificial intelligence, said Villegas. Many production companies have begun taking AI scans of actors, which Sag-Aftra says makes them “vulnerable to having most of their work replaced by digital replicas”.
“AI will take away everyone’s job,” said Fehr. The film industry “injects millions and millions into the economy” that hires not just actors and writers, but carpenters, caterers, costume designers and electricians. But if films are artificially generated, he says, all those jobs go away.
According to a March press release from the governor’s office, the film industry supports about 8,000 jobs across New Mexico. That same month, the governor announced the creation of the New Mexico Media Academy, “a collaborative workforce development initiative that will equip New Mexico residents with the advanced skills they need to work in the film and television industry”.
“Undoubtedly, the industry strikes impact film and television production activity and spend,” Amber Dodson, director of New Mexico’s film office, said in an email. “That being said, we are hopeful that fair resolutions will be reached among the parties, and we expect a swift rebound at that point.”
