This article was originally published by Vanity Fair.
Hollywood has become a disaster movie. SAG-AFTRA, the guild that represents more than 160,000 performers, is on the verge of striking against the film and television studios for the first time in 43 years.
Despite the 11th-hour intervention of a federal mediator, the actors guild could not come to an agreement with AMPTP, the organization that represents the major studios, networks and streamers. Their contract expired on Wednesday at 11:59 pm PT, at which time SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee voted unanimously to recommend a strike. Fran Drescher, the guild’s president, said in a statement, “SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry. The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us.”
The National Board will vote Thursday morning to endorse the strike. AMPTP issued a statement declaring, “We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations. This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more. Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods."
If SAG-AFTRA’s national board votes to strike, actors will be joining writers on the picket lines. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2nd. Actors and writers haven’t gone on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild. But Hollywood has been in the middle of an unprecedented show of force as workers across the industry grow frustrated by the changes wrought by streaming. Like their writing peers, actors are fighting for overall raises and increases in streaming residual payments, as well as protection against the rise of AI.
“I just want everybody to understand that this isn't about making more millions of dollars,” Sheryl Lee Ralph, a member of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, told Vanity Fair yesterday after her Emmy nomination for Abbott Elementary was announced. “Quiet as it's kept, at least 80% of our union are plain, old, ordinary, hardworking people who haven't gotten a cost of living raise in 40 years, who are depending upon the kindness of big corporations. You need people who can crunch numbers, but when it starts to crunch people, that's not good. Something must be changed about how business is done in show business in Hollywood because the artists, the performers, the writers are getting squeezed and it’s not right.”
Daniel Radcliffe, speaking before the strike about his Emmy nomination for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, told V.F.: “Nobody wants these [strikes] to happen but I think they’re incredibly necessary for the way the industry is going. Technology has changed so much about the industry in the last 10 years—it feels like there will need to be a recalibration in order for everybody to work,” he said of discussions around the use of AI in film and television.
Paul Walter Hauser, Emmy-nominated for his role as a serial killer in Apple TV+’s Black Bird, seconded that before the strike took effect: “I think it’s very important that we do take a stand. We are incredibly strong, especially with our siblings at the WGA.”
Although Emmy nominations were announced yesterday, campaigning will be virtually nonexistent—and the September 18 show possibly postponed—if the actors strike extends past the end of July. Even before a SAG-AFTRA strike seemed likely, there was talk that Emmys organizers were considering pushing the event as late as January. (The Television Academy has not addressed whether the broadcast might move, but a spokesperson gave V.F. a statement that read, in part,
“We hope the ongoing guild negotiations can come to an equitable and swift resolution. We are committed to supporting a television industry that stands strong in equity.”) All of this could give the AMPTP incentive to sit back down at the negotiating table with the actors—and eventually the writers—to hammer out new deals. Either that or it could be a long, hot summer for the studios and the picketers alike.
SAG-AFTRA members voted overwhelmingly in support of authorizing a strike, but it wasn’t certain that they would actually make the leap. When the guild began negotiating new theatrical and television contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers at the beginning of June, president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland wrote to members that had “the intention of securing a strong deal for our members.” In a video update sent just days before SAG’s contract was set to expire on June 30, they boasted that they were “having extremely productive negotiations.” Many SAG-AFTRA members interpreted the message as a sign that their guild was preparing to take a deal. But the guild’s leadership had clearly been disillusioned by the proceedings.
In late June, SAG-AFTRA said negotiations would be extended for another week and a half, forestalling the possibility of a strike until after Fourth of July, when Hollywood's elite decamps for yachts and beach houses. “No one should mistake this extension for weakness,” Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland assured members. Behind the scenes, SAG-AFTRA leadership had reached an impasse with the AMPTP over key issues, including the use of artificial intelligence, sources told Vanity Fair.
The clearest sign yet that SAG-AFTRA was preparing for a strike came last Thursday, when the guild emailed members asking “if and how you’d like to volunteer” during a possible work stoppage. The guild followed up the email with Instagram photos of members preparing picket signs. On Monday, it assembled Hollywood publicists and talent agents to explain what their clients would and would not be allowed to do if there was a strike. (OK: Receiving a lifetime achievement award. Not OK: Attending a premiere, sitting for an interview, or otherwise promoting an upcoming project.)
Hollywood has already been at a nearly complete standstill since writers went on strike, but an actors strike will force all productions to immediately halt. Premieres will be canceled and the stars of upcoming summer blockbusters will be pulled off the press circuit. Studios will not have actors to promote upcoming movies and TV shows at Comic-Con, which is set to begin July 20 in San Diego.
Entertainment labor lawyer Jonathan Handel predicts that a double strike will prolong the impasses for both scribes and stars. “There’s no way you can get two strikes settled by the end of July,” he says, suggesting awards strategists better start planning for a delayed Emmys. Whenever talks resume, the AMPTP will have to contend with separate but equally contentious negotiations. That makes it all the more likely that the broadcast networks will enter the fall TV season with lineups full of reruns and reality shows. As far as movies are concerned, this years’ films could conceivably be moved later because the stars won’t be available for promotions, and even next summer and fall’s tentpole films could be delayed because of production delays.
For the guilds, Hollywood’s lopsided power structure is a big part of what has made this moment necessary. “It’s utterly frustrating. It really is the haves versus the have nots,” Oscar and Emmy nominee Aunjanue Ellis told V.F. before the strike. “There’s a lot of inequality that has to be addressed, and I just feel that there is just a lack of respect—there’s a lack of respect for writers, there's a lack of respect for actors.”
With additional reporting by Rebecca Ford, David Canfield, and Katey Rich
