actors and screenwriters strike in the USA

In the United States, a strike of actors began, who for the first time since 1960 joined the striking screenwriters – they stopped work on May 2. The irreconcilable differences between the two guilds and the heads of movie studios and streaming services have led Hollywood to experience one of the biggest crises in its history. comments Yulia Shagelman.

The three-year contract between the 160,000-member Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance (AMPTP) expired on June 30th. Since June 7, negotiations on the terms of a new contract have continued. Given that they were walking against the backdrop of a Writers Guild (WGA) strike, with whom the actors share many of their demands for AMPTP and to whom they immediately expressed their support (many well-known performers even took part in the pickets), no one expected these negotiations to be simple. On June 5, 98% of SAG-AFTRA members were in favor of approving the strike if the producers did not satisfy all the requests of the guild, and on June 24, more than 1 thousand actors, including, for example, such famous as Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix, signed an open letter to the leadership of the trade union, urging them to firmly defend their interests. Nevertheless, SAG-AFTRA agreed to extend the negotiations until July 13, but then admitted that AMPTP was simply taking time to advertise fresh summer blockbusters, while not intending to meet the guild. As a result, no agreement was reached, and from 00:00 on July 14, the actors began an indefinite strike.

As with screenwriters, the root of the problem lies in the changes that the Hollywood business model has undergone with the development of streaming. If in the days of broadcast television, the amount of royalties that actors received depended on the number of reruns of series and films, then streaming works differently, and the royalties they pay cannot even keep up with inflation: 85% of SAG-AFTRA members cannot affording union insurance, which requires an annual income of $26,000 or more. In addition, shorter streaming seasons mean less work and less money.

The actors are demanding higher minimum wages, insurance and pension payments, increased deductions, and bonuses when the project is gaining a large number of views.

Another stumbling block in the negotiations was the use of artificial intelligence. Both screenwriters and actors are concerned about the intention of content producers to increasingly use it in the creation of films and series. Thus, the management of SAG-AFTRA was outraged by the proposal of the producers to attract extras for shooting only for one day, scan their appearance and then use their digital images, thus paying for the work only once.

Actors demand to regulate and limit the use of artificial intelligence, allowing its use only with the consent of the performers and for appropriate compensation.

For the duration of the strike, guild members are prohibited from any filming and offscreen work on projects that were in production until the last moment (this production, respectively, stops, which will affect, for example, Gladiator 2 and the next Deadpool). Almost the only project whose filming continues despite the strike is the second season of the HBO series House of Dragons. Most of the actors employed in it are members of the British trade union Equity, and, according to the labor law of the United Kingdom, they are prohibited from supporting the strike. But members of SAG-AFTRA will also not take part in rehearsals, auditions, attend premieres, festivals and award ceremonies, give interviews, participate in talk shows and in any way promote films and series already made, including their mentions in social networks.

This will affect the promotional campaigns of blockbusters dear to the producer’s heart, for example, already on July 13, the actors of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer left the London premiere without even waiting for the official start of the strike (Nolan himself expressed support for both striking guilds). Content producers have pulled out of San Diego Comic-Con, the premier festival for science fiction and comic book films. Scheduled for September 18, the TV Emmy Awards, which were announced just two days before the strike, are likely to have to be rescheduled. The autumn film festivals in Toronto, New York and Telluride, in the words of one of the heads of the studios, “covered”: “You can’t arrange premieres without stars. No stars, no movie.”

The long-term consequences for the film industry will be even more serious. Even a brief shutdown in film production means rescheduling releases several years in advance, increasing costs and consequently canceling projects that will lose profitability.

Streamers, already trying to cut their spending as much as possible lately, will refuse to continue many series and launch new ones – the amount of new content will decrease, which will lead to an outflow of subscribers, breaking the very scheme that largely caused the current crisis.

Nevertheless, AMPTP is not going to give in yet, not without reason seeing in strong trade unions a threat to its own comfortable existence. So, Disney CEO Bob Eager called the demands of actors and screenwriters “unrealistic”, which caused additional dissatisfaction with the strikers, who know that the income of the head of the company by the end of the current year should be $ 27 million. As the publication suspects dead line, the alliance’s strategy for the WGA is to drag out the strike until the bankrupt writers are ready to give up. Actors are generally treated better in Hollywood, so the resumption of negotiations can theoretically be expected in a few weeks. But, seeing how determined both guilds are, one should not count on a speedy resolution of the conflict.