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Key Points
- The Screen Actors Guild voted to approve a strike action involving the 160,000 actors belonging to the union.
- Actors have been battling studios for a deal that would deliver better pay and royalties from streaming.
- A movie being filmed in Australia has been put on hold for the duration of the strike.
It had been expected to inject more than $79 million into the Australian economy and create 260 jobs for local cast and crew.
Actor Sam Neill is among a film cast that has stopped production in Queensland. Source: AAP / Dan Himbrechts
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said issues affecting US actors and writers are the same internationally.
The twin strikes will add to the economic damage from the writers’ walkout, delivering another blow to an industry struggling with changes to its business.
Hollywood actors will go on strike, joining film and television writers who have been on picket lines since May. Source: AAP / Michael Brochstein
Both SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) – Hollywood’s largest union, representing 160,000 film and television actors – and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are demanding increases in base pay and residuals (a form of collective royalty payment) in the streaming TV era plus assurances their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
A deadline to reach a new contract expired on Wednesday.
The Screen Actors Guild is unhappy with negotiations
“I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things, how they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting.”
Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny TV show, is the president of SAG-AFTRA. Source: EPA / Etienne Laurent
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that negotiates on behalf of Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co and other production companies, said it was “deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations”.
The group said it had offered “historic pay and residual increases” and “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses”.
How does the strike affect film and TV productions?
The walkout by SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors from bit-part players to Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, will effectively shutter the studios’ remaining US-based productions of film and scripted television.
Some production work not involving SAG-AFTRA performers can proceed, such as location scouting or certain kinds of post-production editing.
Oppenheimer cast leave London premiere in support of the strike
The cast, which also includes Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh, had a plan to leave if a strike was called amid the fanfare.
The cast of Oppenheimer posed for photos minutes before the strike was called. Source: AAP / Doug Peters
“Once the strike is officially called, (we’re walking). That’s why we moved this (red carpet) up because we know the second it’s called, we’re going home,” Damon told entertainment magazine Variety shortly before the union declared a strike.
“There’s money being made and it needs to be allocated in a way that takes care of people who are on the margins.”
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