2023-07-13 22:19:53
by Viviana Mazza, correspondent in New York
It hasn’t happened since Reagan: the unions complain of abuses and inequalities due to new technologies. At the head of the mobilization Stiller, Streep, Fonda and Damon
It hasn’t happened since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild, the actors’ union, that Hollywood stars and screenwriters went on strike together. SAG-AFTRA – a merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – announced the strike starting at midnight yesterday: the union representing 160,000 film and TV actors joined the protest of the screenwriters and writers which has been going on since 2 May. Despite the intervention of a federal mediator, by Wednesday night’s deadline no agreement was reached on salary increases, the recalculation of image rights and the protections on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the renewal of the contract between the actors’ union and the studios.
Sixty-three years ago the strike concerned the proceeds that screenwriters and actors received from the transition from cinema to TV: films with Elizabeth Taylor and Marylin Monroe were suspended. Today Hollywood is once again paralyzed by a historic battle involving new technologies. Like the writers, the actors are asking the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major production and streaming studios (including Amazon, Disney, Apple, NbcUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros) to raise royalties they get when shows are released on Netflix and other platforms. Disney CEO Bob Iger called the demands unrealistic. The studios, which argue that many platforms do not make large profits, have opposed the idea of tying the fees to the success of streaming programs and to entrust an impartial company with the task of estimating views.
Also at the root of the protest is greater unity among unions in Hollywood and the rise of union activism in post-Covid America. 98% of union members had authorized the leaders to call the strike. Hundreds of actors including Jane Fonda, Maryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ben Stiller have signed a letter with clear tones: This is not the time to compromise. It is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of history are upon us. We ask you to push for the necessary change and protections and, in doing so, to make history. Actors will not participate in productions or promotional events. Matt Damon, who with the cast of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer left the London premiere in solidarity with the protest, underlined that to get health care you need to earn 26,000 dollars a year: many can only do it with author. Without it, they lose the insurance. unacceptable. Fonda, who had already expressed solidarity with the screenwriters, explains: My case is different from the average actor, but we have to stick together. We hear scary things about Artificial Intelligence (Ai), we need to make sure we won’t be replaced. The union says it does not want to ban AI but that acquiring the rights to develop a system with the voice and image of an actor must be negotiated. We are the victims, said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher from Los Angeles. In the final stages of the negotiation she was in Puglia at the Dolce and Gabbana fashion shows, but the union defended her: he was known, he participated every day via zoom
July 13, 2023 (change July 13, 2023 | 22:19)
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