Deadline’s Strike Talk Podcast Week 24: Billy Ray Talks With Ashley Nicole Black, Clark Gregg & Robert Wisdom About Why SAG-AFTRA Fight Is So Important To Actors

In the 24th weekly installment of the Deadline Strike Talk Podcast, host Billy Ray doesn’t seem too shaken by the surprise breakoff of talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA.

Even though CAA chief Bryan Lourd stated publicly there is a wide gap between the streamers and actors over residuals, Ray believes a deal could be had by the end of next week. The pressure is high, as crew members stretch further without a paycheck, and the streamers find themselves the focus over issues like viewer transparency and what that should mean in the area of residuals and health benefits for actors.

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This week, Ray takes a look at the actor’s life with three veterans who each trod a hard road to get to a position of prominence: Ashley Nicole Black (Ted Lasso, A Black Lady Sketch Show), Clark Gregg (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Painkiller), and Robert Wisdom (Barry, The Wire). They discuss the ongoing strike, the importance of continued solidarity and the essential next steps for performers to protect their work.

Ray’s intro deals with Jackie Robinson and former Dodgers GM Branch Rickey and how the historic shattering of baseball’s color line came two years in the making and involved a key person who’d grown up in the segregated South and had to be swung over to the right side of history in order for the audacious move to succeed. Luck is opportunity meeting preparation, Ray says. He believes that the planning that went into the current painful labor stoppage will change the business long term, for the better, and make it possible for the next Ashley Nicole Black, Clark Gregg and Robert Wisdom to thrive in an art form that pours of billions in revenues, and ought to provide for health benefits and a cushion against lean times like the ones we are all dealing with right now.

Listen here:

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