CAA’s Bryan Lourd Says Hollywood Must “Heal” After Strikes Or Industry Could Be “Destroyed”

Jake Kanter
·2 min read
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CAA co-chair Bryan Lourd has said that the film and TV industry could be “destroyed” if there is not a proper healing process after the Hollywood strikes have been resolved.

Lourd is currently in the UK and took to the stage at the RTS Cambridge Convention to discuss the state of the creative industry with his friend Emma Thompson.

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During the freewheeling conversation, Lourd — who has been on the SAG-AFTRA picket line — said the strikes were having a “terrible” impact on film and TV workers.

The super-agent said the industrial action has grown out of a dissonance between studio executives and actors, writers, and creators. “They are born from misalignment of artists, and what they do, and the businesses and what they do,” he explained.

Lourd said there is now an “urgency” to bridge this divide, resolve the strikes, and commit to a period of “healing” otherwise it could “destroy what is an amazing industry.” He added: “I think the relationship between the executives and the creative branch just has to be much, much closer.”

The strikes started with writers’ putting their pens down in May, meaning walkouts have been ongoing for five months. Lourd, who has offered to bring the SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP together, said he believes that the strikes now are closer to the end than the beginning.

Lourd and Thompson took shots at greenlighting ideas by algorithm and the word “content.” Lourd said data-driven commissioning is dangerous and it is “the individual idea … is what makes for a hit.”

Thompson said the word “content” was “rude” and “misleading,” making film and TV projects sound like the “stuffing inside a sofa cushion.”

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