“No choice”: US actors on strike
Updated: Not since 1969 have US actors and writers both been on strike against Film & TV studios, while MEAA in Australia supports US union.
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US actors have gone on strike against film and TV companies, marking only the second time in Hollywood history that actors have joined writers on the picket lines.
The SAG-AFTRA national board held its meeting on Thursday morning and voted unanimously to approve a strike recommendation.
The work stoppage will impact 160,000 union members. The union’s national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that the talks left the union “with no choice” but to call a strike, while union president Fran Drescher said that the studios “plead poverty” and that the producers “stand on the wrong side of history.”
The strike begins at midnight on Friday (US) and picketing will start on Friday morning. According to the guidelines, SAG-AFTRA members will not be able to attend premieres, do interviews for completed work, go to awards shows, attend film festivals or even promote projects on social media while the strike is in effect.
'You share the wealth because you cannot exist without us.'
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher was fired up when delivering this speech Thursday after the actors union voted to go on strike. Watch her full remarks ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6L2dnF6TvF
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 13, 2023
“We are being victimized by a very greedy enterprise,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said during Thursday’s press conference. “At some point you have to say ‘No, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’”
In her impassioned plea, she argued that streaming and artificial intelligence have upended the entertainment industry’s business model. But, she continued, the SAG-AFTRA contracts haven’t been updated to reflect those advancements.
“If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in jeopardy. You cannot change the business model as much as it has been changed and not expect the contract to change too,” she said. “I cannot believe … how [the studios] plead poverty, that they are losing money left and right, when they give hundreds of millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, argues 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 AMPTP said in a statement after the strike was confirmed. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
In response to the AMPTP’s statement, Crabtree-Ireland said at the press conference, “If you think this is a historic proposal, think again.”
All production under the SAG-AFTRA TV and film contract will immediately halt, bringing projects to a standstill both in the U.S. and around the globe.
It will be SAG-AFTRA’s first strike against film and television companies in four decades. When actors went on a 95-day strike in July 1980, they pushed for a system of profit-sharing to get a percentage of revenue from home media releases. SAG wanted to get ahead of what it believed would be lucrative market (SAG merged with AFTRA in 2012).
The only previous “double strike” — involving both actors and writers — came in 1960, when the Screen Actors Guild was led by Ronald Reagan. In that strike, both the writers and actors were wrestling with compensation issues arising from the dawn of television. Together, they won residuals for TV reruns and for broadcast of films on TV, and established the first pension and welfare plan.
MEAA:
Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance supports SAG-AFTRA with Chief Executive Erin Madeley saying, “Streaming services are raking in billions of dollars in revenue and earnings as their audiences continue to grow but these profits are not being shared fairly with actors.
“Although series budgets are increasing, that increase is not being reflected in the share of the money going to performers. Residuals – payments for the reuse of their work – are also much smaller on streamers compared to broadcast TV rates.
“In addition, artificial intelligence poses a new threat to the livelihoods of actors around the world and there need to be agreed rules around its use.
“Performers see their jobs as especially vulnerable to new technology, with generative AI able to replicate facial expressions, body movement and voice with alarming accuracy. We don’t want robots telling our stories in place of humans.
“SAG-AFTRA members have our solidarity because their struggle is our struggle and a win in Hollywood will set the standard for improvements for screen performers around the world.
“We call on the major Hollywood studios to negotiate in good faith to resolve the issues and meanwhile will be urging MEAA members to publicly show their support for their performer and writer colleagues in the US.
“A small number of productions currently underway in Australia may be impacted by the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes.
“MEAA representatives are in dialogue with the producers of those productions and will advise crew and performer members of their rights if work is interrupted by the strikes.”
Screen Producers Australia:
Screen Producers Australia (SPA) acknowledges that last night SAG-AFTRA issued a Strike Notice and Order declaring a strike by its members of all services under the SAG-AFTRA Agreements that cover scripted TV, Film and New Media productions.
SPA notes the strike does not apply to non-scripted productions, including documentaries, light entertainment and reality shows.
However, it will apply to some scripted TV and feature films produced in Australia. SPA anticipates that a limited number of scripted “offshore” (i.e. non-Australian) productions will be affected by the strike, with cast and crew stood down while the strike continues.
However, local scripted productions, produced and controlled by Australian production companies, engaging Australian and Imported SAG members, will remain unaffected by the strike order provided they engage all cast under Australian Industry Contracts in accordance with the Global Rule One Agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA).
SPA is working to provide its member businesses with up-to-date information and will continue to provide updates as they emerge.
SPA hopes for a quick resolution to the strike.
Source: Variety, Hollywood Reporter
Updated.
10 Responses
Lena Hall said all the series regulars for Snowpiercer season 4 had to have full body scans and a full range of emotion capture. She had no idea why they had to do that till now.
Background actors are being paid $100 by Marvel to do a full scan so they can be used for future use without paying the actor.
Great deal for the studios but bad for the actors.
The answer is do not agree to full badly scans or emotion capture. Everyone has to agree, or have a clause in the contract that no “likeness” is to be used.
Motion capture technology has been in use for some time, this process was developed by Weta digital (now Weta FX), for Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and Planet of the Apes, which made Andy Serkis a specialist motion capture star. With today’s CGI heavy productions recreating digital body doubles is essential, including the actors face. CGI and the possible use of AI to recreate younger versions of well known actors are here to stay, and will only get better, I would think that producers should make it known that CGI images will be made of the actors and have it written into their contract. Don’t forget that stunt body doubles rarely got any screen credit until recent times, as an example Pedro Pascal was not always in his ‘Mando’ suit, being mostly a voice actor, he had two stand-ins/stunt doubles, with Brendan Wayne, the grandson of John Wayne being one of those stand-ins. Pedro described his role as a collaborative effort, developing the on screen Mandalorian character with Wayne.
Don’t know what to make of this one. On one hand the unionist in me says go for it, but really I think the biggest hit would come if everybody just cancelled their subscription service until a favourable deal is struck. It does seem like a very one-sided offer. Then I wonder if I am a Luddite and this AI take over in enviable P(Doom) = 50.
Heard an interesting show on the radio the other day about the economics / future of movies. Bidden struck a deal for 23 movies to be shown in China each year. On first glance a great deal for the US Movie Industry. Then the economic might and influence of China became apparent and US movies needed to cater to Chinese tastes and political sensibilities and they now metaphorically “own” the US Movie Industry.
If the production studios win, it will be interesting to see what direction they take TV and Movies. Will innovation disappear, or are we destine for variations of the same forever more?
I would think that AI would be able to write a generic script for an American drama show just as well as the committees that write them now, I would have liked AI to have written the script for Amazon’s recent Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, I’m sure it would have done a better job. The issue for Disney (as an example) is that China allegedly wont accept US movies and shows because of the presence of LGBGQ+ characters and symbols of US patriotism like the Statue of Liberty, or the hiring of Eternals director Chloe Zhao, who is also a critic of China. As a response to criticism, Disney made different poster art and re-edited some movies for Chinese audiences. Chinese money is making a lot of B Grade productions (check out Amazons movie list), and no doubt blockbuster movies as well, the US studios don’t really care where the money comes from.
In deference to Fran’s speech, Hollywood studio CEO’s and producers believed they could exist despite themselves, essentially they relied on global investment companies like Blackrock to bankroll their studios and projects, in return they accepted edicts about the content they make, this organisational interference has had a knock-on effect on streaming numbers and box office takings for some recent block buster movies, there is only so much monetary loss that big studios can take. Writers and actors are dependent on the quality of deals made in executive boardrooms who must plan at least 2 years ahead, all interested parties must have deals signed before then, recently contracted producers and actors have been dismissed because of ongoing studio politics, the result has been substantial economic losses which cant be redressed. Actors like writers are the meat in the sandwich during Hollywood’s economic woes, unless creative attitudes change it will continue.
There’s not much being produced anyway. It’s the off season for the networks and anything that was intended to made has already been shut down by the writers strike. The negotiations are timed to cause maximum press and minimum destruction. FTA has been heading towards shows without actors and writers and that is only going to accelerate. Actor get automatic yearly increases and have waited till Season 6 when they have all the power to negotiate large salaries. But at the moment nothing is making it to S3. Not exactly sure what all this revenue they are talking about is. The internet creates a few mega successes and lots of marginal niche content. WB ended so much in debt that Time-Warner sold off their newly build media empire to Discovery who went on an asset stripping and cost cutting binge. Viceland lost $215m trying to stream to 16-34s. There’s no way Disney, Universal, Paramount, Fox or Nexstar are making money on drama and comedy in their FTA businesses.
This is exactly the time that actors start filming for the new season. Stripped reality hasn’t taken over in America like here. Dick Wolf alone producers three extremely profitable nights of scripted TV alone (FBIs, Law & Orders and One Chicago). Fox has announced a schedule for more scripted content, but are still dependent on their scripted shows coming back soon. Then there is Cable which films all year and on scripted content (HBO, FX, Showtime, etc.) I know that wouldn’t be happening for a while with the Writer’s strike, but this is big news, especially the stopping of promotion for the summer blockbusters. The only happy people will be Bravo, TLC and HGTV who only show reality like Real Housewives, Below Deck, 90 Day Fiancé and House Hunters who will benefit from this.
Finding out Fran Drescher is a union leader is by far the best thing about today so far….She is to actors what Norma Rae was to factory workers ☺
Yes it was great to see and hear her speak today so impassioned. Some great names have been President of that guild, but she will certainly cement her name and place in history with it.