The Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced a strike call on 13 July, joining the already protesting members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) for fair pay.
The WGA strike has been on since 2 May, with several prominent members of the guild joining picket lines calling for a reform in the system in which their Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) has been significantly affected due to streaming.
The WGA strike has already affected several movies and TV shows. With SAG-AFTRA joining them, the American entertainment industry, or Hollywood, has come to a near complete halt.
The combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA protest is historic as it is the first since 1960 that both major unions have joined forces for the sake of their members. The last time SAG-AFTRA went on a strike on its own was in 1980.
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All about the historic SAG-AFTRA strike
What is the demand of SAG-AFTRA?
Though the SAG-AFTRA strike call is not directly related to the WGA strike, both writers and actors share similar issues. Compensation and artificial intelligence (AI) are among the common angles.
The actors are up against streaming giants over shrinking compensation because of the disconnection between royalty and the popularity of films or shows.
There is also the concern over AI being able to recreate the performances of stars. Thus, SAG-AFTRA wants a guarantee that actors will not be replaced by AI or computer-generated faces and voices.
What happened at negotiations?
In the last week of June, over 300 prominent Hollywood stars who are members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), were the more than 1700 who signed a petition threatening to go on strike unless an agreement on a new contract between the organisation and major Hollywood studios, streamers and production companies is not reached by 30 June.
Among the top names who said they would go on such a strike were Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence.
In a last-minute scramble, SAG-AFTRA, the combined labour unions representing over 160,000 performers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents studios, agreed to extend their current contract through 12 July with an assurance of continued negotiations.
The negotiations failed and the actor’s union said that they will start joining picket lines starting at midnight.
“We are the victims here. We are being victimised by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us,” said Fran Drescher, president of the actors union, at a press conference.
“It is disgusting,” she said. “Shame on them.”
How has AMPTP reacted?
In a statement, AMPTP said that “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 union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry,” it added.
AMPTP also said that it had agreed to a “groundbreaking proposal” concerning the use of AI under which actors’ consent will be sought before their digital likeness are used.
This particular proposal was slammed by Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG’s national executive director and chief negotiator.
“They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan of their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity,” he said. “If you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
How is the SAG-AFTRA strike going to affect Hollywood?
The SAG-AFTRA strike will affect all movies or TV shows currently in production. No actor will be allowed to promote their past projects or make appearances for anything from red carpet to media interviews.
This means that actors will not be able to campaign for the upcoming 2023 Emmy Awards whose nominees were announced on 12 July till the strike is over. The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held on 18 September.
According to a notice by the guild, no member is allowed to work in anything that is covered by the TV/Theatrical Contracts. These include acting, singing, dancing, stunts, puppeteering, voice acting, narrating, looping, stand-ins, and even auditions.
Members can, however, work on commercials in TV radio and digital media, TV programmes covered by Network TV Code, dubbing, audiobooks, corporate and educational programmes, and other SAG-AFTRA approved interim agreements.
Members can also work in non-dramatic programmes such as talk shows, variety shows, award shows, reality shows, game shows and special events.
The effect of the strike call was seen almost immediately as the Oppenheimer cast – Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt – left the UK premiere of the film to fly back to the US to join the picket lines.
Where are the SAG-AFTRA picket lines starting?
SAG-AFTRA has said that picketing will begin at 9 am (PST) in Los Angeles and 12 noon (ET) in New York City on 14 July.
Friday 7/14, #SAGAFTRAstrike picketing begins in Los Angeles and New York at 9 PT/12 ET.
We are #SAGAFTRAstrong TOGETHER 💪🪧
Get more information at https://t.co/EE6qPXDi3T. pic.twitter.com/laFeNWMmRC
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) July 14, 2023
They will be held simultaneously outside the LA headquarters of Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney and Fox and the New York City offices of Warner Bros, Discovery, Netflix, HBO, Amazon, NBC Universal and Paramount.
(Hero and Featured images: SAG-AFTRA/@sagaftra/Twitter)
This story first appeared on Prestige Online Malaysia
