How the Actors’ Strike Will Turn Hollywood Upside Down
After the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) spent four weeks negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood’s studios and streamers, the two sides failed to agree on a new contract and SAG-AFTRA has now joined the Writers Guild of America in a strike. Nearly all of Hollywood has come to a standstill with these two major unions standing side-by-side on the picket lines, which will cause a ripple effect across the entire entertainment industry. It is the first time that both unions, the 160,000-strong SAG-AFTRA and some 25,000 WGA members, have gone on strike simultaneously since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan served as SAG president.
In an impassioned speech, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a press conference on Thursday, “It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads but we had no choice. We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us.”
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“I cannot believe it, quite frankly,” Drescher continued. “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 of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”
The next few months are up in the air for actors, writers, and everyone involved in the fallout of the strike as productions, press tours, and festivals come to a halt. According to their Strike Notice, not only are SAG members not allowed to film current projects, but there’s also a long list of rules for members to follow during this time. Actors are not currently permitted to do interviews with press or on podcasts on behalf of studios, participate in fan expos, festivals, panels, make personal appearances, attend award shows, junkets, or any premieres or screenings.
On Wednesday night, the Oppenheimer cast even walked out of their London premiere once they learned that the strike was going into effect.
“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,” Matt Damon told Variety at the premiere. “It’s really about working actors. It’s $26,000 to qualify for health coverage and a lot of people are on the margins and residual payments are getting them across that threshold. This isn’t an academic exercise. This is real life-and-death stuff. Hopefully we get to a resolution quickly. No one wants a work stoppage, but we’ve got to get a fair deal.”
As far as on-camera work that’s prohibited for SAG members, people are not allowed to act, sing, dance, perform stunts, voice act, narrate, puppeteer, or pilot an aircraft. These overall limitations don’t just affect major players; SAG actors are also not supposed to do background or stand-in work, work as body doubles, participate in rehearsals, camera tests, fittings, wardrobe or makeup tests, nor can they audition even by self-tape.
Upcoming film festivals, where awards favorites and Oscars movies typically premiere every year, are also likely to be impacted. The Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival are both set to take place at the end of August, the Toronto International Film Festival is scheduled for the beginning of September, and then the New York Film Festival is going to round out the end of the month.
While scripted programming and the industry around it has been temporarily upended with no end in sight, sources tell Rolling Stone that entertainment formats under the umbrella of reality TV, news, sports, video games, and soap operas are expected to continue without interruption.
The fall television season is typically packed with new content following summer hiatuses, but this year networks are currently scheduled to solely air unscripted television and animated shows. Fox’s lineup includes shows like: Celebrity Name That Tune, I Can See Your Voice, Hell’s Kitchen, The Masked Singer, Special Forces, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers. CBS will air shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and specials for Let’s Make a Deal and The Price is Right. On ABC, viewers can tune into Dancing With the Stars, Celebrity Jeopardy!, Judge Steve Harvey, The Golden Bachelor, Shark Tank, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and reruns of Abbott Elementary.
The SAG strike will also impact the 2023 Emmys, which were supposed to take place on September 18. Nominations for the award show, put on by the Television Academy, were released on Wednesday just a day before the strike went into effect, leaving actors and talent with mixed emotions about their nominations. They won’t be able to campaign on behalf of their performances and if the strike continues into September, they won’t be able to attend the show.
Sheryl Lee Ralph, who was nominated for an Emmy for her role in Abbott Elementary, told The Hollywood Reporter she was “hit with a bag of emotions” after learning about her nomination because of the strike.
“We’re fighting for our art,” she said. “We’re fighting for what we love, and what we know people love. We’re not big million-dollar companies. No, we’re people, and we want to enjoy what we do, and we want to make a living at it. That’s what this is about.”
While the immediate future for SAG members involves a long list of things they’re not allowed to do or participate in, it didn’t take them much time to express solidarity with WGA members who were already on strike and join in-person demonstrations on the picket lines outside of Hollywood studios.
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