‘No contracts, no peace’: Actors stage demonstration in New York
The premiere for Disney’s star-studded fantasy comedy Haunted Mansion on Saturday night (15 July) became the first major Hollywood event to go ahead without its actors due to the industry strikes.
Stars including Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy and Jamie Lee Curtis were initially due to walk the red carpet, but the studio ended up leaning on performers dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Maleficent, Snow White‘s Evil Queen and Cruella, instead.
Negotiators for the SAG-AFTRA union unanimously recommended a strike after talks with studios broke down. Scripted TV and movie production ceased immediately in the first dual work stoppage by both actors and writers in 63 years.
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May. Both groups demand increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
Both unions are in dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny and the president of SAG-AFTRA, said studios’ responses to the actors’ concerns had been “insulting and disrespectful”.
George Clooney has led A-listers voicing support for the strike, and Jason Sudeikis and Susan Sarandon are among the stars who have been seen on the picket line. Succession actor Brian Cox, meanwhile, has warned that the actors’ strike could get “very unpleasant”.
The cast of Oppenheimer left a London premiere prematurely on Thursday night (13 July) to “go and write their picket signs”.
Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Igercondemned the threatened strike action as “very disruptive” at the “worst time” as well as calling the expectations of writers and actors “just not realistic”.
