Hollywood is heading this Thursday, July 13 towards an actors’ strike, after the failure of negotiations between the major American studios and the powerful actors’ union, which denounced “insulting” salary proposals.
Negotiators for the American actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have unanimously recommended a strike after talks with Hollywood studios failed, said SAG-AFTRA, whose national council will meet on Thursday July 13 to vote on the question.
“Insulting Proposals”
Like screenwriters, actors are demanding better pay to fight inflation and guarantees against potential upheavals linked to artificial intelligence, such as voice cloning. They are protesting in particular against the drop, linked to streaming, of their so-called “residual”arising from each rerun of a film or series.
If the strike is approved, the actors would join film and TV screenwriters who went off the job in early May. “After more than four weeks of negotiations, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP)…still refuses to offer a fair deal on key issues that are critical to SAG members. -AFTRA”, like their pay, the union said in a statement.
Its positions are far too far removed from that of the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), which brings together historic film groups such as Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery and Sony, and digital platforms such as Netflix, Amazon or Apple.
“The AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our vital contribution to this industry. Employers have refused to engage meaningfully on some issues and on others we have completely ignored”, wrote in a press release published Thursday, July 13, this union, which represents 160,000 actors and other professionals on the small and big screen. The union office must ratify the start of the strike on Thursday.
If they launched this movement, the actors would then join the screenwriters, who have ceased work since the beginning of May. This double social movement bringing together the faces and feathers of the film industry will be a first since 1960 in Hollywood. The two trades are demanding an increase in their remuneration, at half mast in the era of streaming. They also want guarantees regarding the use of artificial intelligence, to prevent AI from generating scripts, or cloning their voice and image. The actors going on strike would be a blow for the bosses of the studios and streaming platforms.
Postponement of the Emmy Awards?
Since May, the only productions that have decided to shoot do so on the basis of scripts already completed in the spring, without being able to modify them. This is particularly the case of the prequel to Lord of the Rings funded by Amazon, Rings of Power. But, without actors, filming would simply not be possible. Only a few talk shows and reality TV shows could continue.
The actors also have the power to seriously handicap the promotion of this summer’s blockbusters, like the highly anticipated Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan, whose premiere in London on Thursday will be brought forward an hour to allow its cast to provide interviews before the start of a possible strike. The absence of comedians on the red carpets would leave a big void in California. Comic-Con, the high mass of American geeks and comic book lovers, should take place without stars from July 20 in San Diego. Before the strike, Disney explained that the launch of its new film, The Haunted Mansionwould be reduced to a “private event” for the fans during the weekend in case of social movement.
Even the Emmy Awards ceremony, the equivalent of the Oscars for television, scheduled for September 18, is threatened. The production is already considering postponing the event to November, or even to 2024, according to the American press. The stars of Succession Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong, all three nominated for Best Actor in a Drama Series and members of the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, would not step on the red carpet, in solidarity with the 160,000 members of the guild. Just like their counterpart Sarah Snook, tipped as a favorite to win the prize for best actress.
No one knows how long the movement could last. Actors haven’t gone on strike since 1980. The last writers’ strike, which dates back to 2007-2008, lasted 100 days and cost the industry two billion dollars.
Mery Streep, Jennifer Lawrence signatories of a letter
In early July, hundreds of famous actors, including Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, signed a letter insisting they needed to strike unless their union reached a settlement. “transformer deal”. According to this document, the American film industry is at a “unprecedented inflection point”.
“We need to modernize our contracts in the face of new technologies”, Kim Donovan told AFP. Worried about the potential impact of artificial intelligence, this 52-year-old actress hopes to see celebrities really get involved in the event of a strike. “They have the strongest voices, we need their support.”
For the past ten years, the advent of streaming has upset remuneration “residual” actors and screenwriters, resulting from each rerun of a film or series. Interesting with television because calculated according to the price of advertisements, these emoluments are much lower with streaming platforms, which do not communicate their audience figures and pay a flat rate, regardless of success.
Without this essential income to absorb the periods of inactivity between two productions, the many workers who do not have the status of actor or star author denounce a precariousness of their profession. The rapid development of artificial intelligence, which threatens to replace them, only adds fuel to the fire. Disney, for example, used AI to produce the credits for its new series launched in June, Secret Invasion.