‘No contracts, no peace’: Actors stage demonstration in New York
Succession actor Brian Cox has warned that the actors’ strike could get “very unpleasant”, after the national board of the SAG-AFTRA union approved a member walkout.
Negotiators for the union unanimously recommended a strike after talks with studios broke down. Scripted TV and movie production will cease 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.
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 Iger condemned the threatened strike action as “very disruptive” at the “worst time” as well as calling the expectations of writers and actors “just not realistic”.
