Hollywood shuts down as actors go on strike over dwindling payments
Hollywood shuts down as actors go on strike over dwindling payments
It has never happened before. News comes to light that the actors in Hollywood numbering to tens of thousands have embarked on a strike
Productively bringing the giant movie and television business to a grinding halt as they join writers in the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years.
According to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) a strike order was issued following the last-ditch talks with studios on their demands over dwindling pay and the threat posed by artificial intelligence which apparently ended without a deal.
As per SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, following the union board’s unanimous vote to strike, this comes as a moment of bygone days, a moment of truth — if they don’t stand tall right now, they are all going to face the consequences.
Adding that the actors are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business.
With the shutdown of nearly all productions and film sets, popular television series face lengthy delays.
Movie studios have already begun reshuffling their calendars, and if the strikes drag on, major film releases could be postponed too.
A strike immediately prevents actors from promoting some of the year’s biggest releases, at the peak of the movie industry’s summer blockbuster season.
The cast of hotly awaited new film “Oppenheimer” walked out of the glitzy London premiere in solidarity with the strike.
As pet British actor Kenneth Branagh, they know it’s a critical time at this point in the industry and the issues that are involved need to be addressed, there are difficult conversations.”
He is very much aware, that everybody’s trying to get a fair deal, that’s what’s required, so and we’ll support that.
Meanwhile, ‘Greedy entity’ – SAG-AFTRA represents some 160,000 actors, all from A-list stars such as Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Glenn Close to day players who do small roles on television series.
The last time the actors’ union went on strike, in 1980, it lasted more than three months.
But, this time around, some 98 percent of members voted to pre-approve industrial action if a deal was not reached.
Drescher alleges that they are all victims and being victimized by a very greedy entity.
He is, however, bemused by the way the people have been in business are treating them.
Over a statement, the union said after talks collapsed that actors’ pay had been “severely eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem,” and warned that “artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions.”
Actors say their salaries have been slashed, and that payments they used to receive when successful shows or films they had starred in were rerun on television have disappeared, because streamers refused to disclose their audience figures.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said it had offered “historic” pay rises and a “groundbreaking AI proposal” to actors, who had chosen “a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger on Thursday told CNBC the actors’ and writers’ expectations were “not realistic,” calling the decision to strike “very disturbing.”
But Phil Lord — the writer, director and producer behind hits such as “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Lego Movie” — was among those in Hollywood pouring scorn on the studios’ version of events.
“AMPTP has played hardball instead of helping to solve entirely solvable problems that endanger writers and actors on the lower ends of the pay scale,” he tweeted.
While the writers’ strike has already dramatically reduced the number of movies and shows in production, an actors’ walkout shutters almost everything.
Some reality TV, animation and talk shows could continue.
He feels sad and painful and it’s necessary,” said actress and SAG-AFTRA member Jennifer Van Dyck, on the picket line in New York on Thursday.
She added that they are making so much money, and they say that we are not approaching this issue fairly…. no one prefers to go on strike, but there’s just no way we can proceed.
As well as requesting higher pay to counteract inflation, actors and writers are united on demands for guarantees about the use of artificial intelligence.
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland slammed the studios’ latest stance on AI.
He told journalists that studios had proposed to be allowed to scan the faces of background performers — or extras — for the payment of one day’s work, and be able to own and use their likeness “for the rest of eternity, in any project they want, with no consent and no compensation.
News Edit K.V.Raman
