Strike in Hollywood: after the screenwriters, the actors join the movement

2023-07-13 22:19:18

“The national council of SAG-AFTRA has voted unanimously for a strike order against studios and broadcasters”, announced Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director of this union which represents 160,000 actors and other professionals of the small and big screen.

The actors thus join the screenwriters, already on strike since the beginning of May. The two trades are demanding an increase in their remuneration, at half mast in the era of streaming. They also want to obtain guarantees regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI), to prevent it from generating scripts, or cloning their voice and image.

Several shoots frozen by strikes

This double social movement bringing together the faces and feathers of the film industry is a first in Hollywood since 1960. Since May, the only productions that have decided to shoot do so on the basis of scripts already completed in the spring, without being able to modify them. . This is particularly the case for the Amazon-funded “Lord of the Rings” prequel, “The Rings of Power”. But without actors, filming will simply no longer be possible.

Only a few “talk shows” and reality shows will be able to continue. The actors also have the power to freeze the promotion of blockbusters expected in theaters this summer, such as “Oppenheimer” or “Gran Turismo”. And without their presence on the red carpets, the industry risks having to postpone the Emmy Awards ceremony, equivalent to the television Oscars scheduled for September 18.

An existential crisis hitting Hollywood

In late June, hundreds of famous actors, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Stiller, signed a letter saying their industry was at an “unprecedented inflection point”.

Over the past ten years, the advent of streaming has upset the “residual” remuneration of actors and screenwriters, resulting from each rerun of a film or series. Interesting with television because calculated according to the price of advertisements, these emoluments are much lower with streaming platforms, which do not communicate their audience figures and pay a flat rate, regardless of success.

Without this essential income to absorb the periods of inactivity between two productions, the many workers who do not have the status of star actor or author denounce a precariousness of their profession. “It’s painful and it’s necessary,” union actress Jennifer Van Dyck told AFP. “When the boss of Disney earns $45 million a year and we just ask for a decent salary, I think they are the ones who can be accused of being unreasonable,” the actress said indignantly.