Dispatches From The Picket Lines, Day 73: Actors Join Writers Ahead Of First Official Day Of SAG-AFTRA Strike After Talks Collapse

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will be doing a tour of Hollywood picket lines tomorrow morning, after her rousing speech saying they were victimized by the AMPTP, which she called a “very greedy entity” and that the studios were on the wrong side of history.

But despite not officially joining the picket lines for their own strike until tomorrow, there were plenty of actors out in force, as they have been for all 73 days of the writers strike.

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The Afterparty star Ike Barinholtz, who has been outside Paramount for much of the strike, was walking the like with Michael McDonald, who was on Madtv and has recently appeared in What We Do In The Shadows and How I Met Your Father.

“We’re triply angry, we’ve triple had it up to here. We’re excited SAG is going to start coming out and show some solidarity,” Barinholtz told Deadline.

McDonald added, “Maybe we can collectively get this thing done and get back to work.”

Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland noted that the talks didn’t come close to a deal.

After their press conference, Michelle Hurd and Ron Ostrow, members of the SAG-AFTRA national board, revealed some more details of the negotiations after Drescher’s speech.

Ostrow, who has appeared in series such as The West Wing and Scandal, said, “There were definitely moments when we thought there might be some progress. On the last day, we had a very serious discussion where it looked like there might be a glimmer. It turned out to evaporate. We were across the table at 11:59am. Even as we sat across the table, Duncan said if you want to make a deal, make it right now, we’re ready. Their response was we’re uncivilized.

Star Trek: Picard star Hurd added, “In the beginning of the conversation we put across the revenue sharing, they didn’t come back to us at all, 35 days, that’s disrespectful.”

All of this comes as a number of high-profile actors have been voicing their support for the strike. Jamie Lee Curtis said, “It looks like it’s time to take down the masks and pick up the signs.”

A Black Lady Sketch Show star Yvette Nicole Brown, who is also on the SAG-AFTRA national board, said that she’ll be joining the picket lines tomorrow. “We all got together last week to create our signs. I was on sticks! When you’re out there without a splinter thanks to the duct tape, think of ya girl!,” she wrote on social media.

Out on the picket lines, many writers were gathered around their phones to watch Drescher’s impassioned speech.

Brian Kim McCormick, who starred in Kingdom and did voice work for Squid Game, was outside Netflix and highlighted the most important issues for actors.

“This is a really important time to address issues like streaming rights, residuals and pay and how that’s all being distributed. On top of that AI technology that’s out there, it’s very effective right now and if we don’t have language in place for future iterations, we’re going to be swimming without a lifeboat so it’s really important for us to get that stuff taken care of now,” he told Deadline.

Dana Lee, who starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm, agreed streaming rights and AI are two of the key topics. “The two major issues are streaming rights – that hasn’t been addressed for a long time and when it started out it was considered new media but it’s been quite a few years now and they have made a ton of money and the actors and writers are not making the kind of money they should. AI is a huge problem too,” he said.

Fellow actor Yong Kim added, “I just don’t want to be taken advantage of and treated like a joke.”

As a chant of ‘Pay Your Actors’ emanated outside Netflix’s Hollywood HQ, Mark Roman, who has appeared in series such as The Lincoln Lawyer and The Offer, said he was happy that Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland called the strike. “Finally! It’s been great to be a plus one to the prom for the past few months but now we’re here legit.”

There was plenty of support from members of the WGA as well across picket lines including at Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Disney, despite the sweltering heat.

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm told Deadline that they were in “full solidarity” with SAG-AFRTA. “It’s very heartening and we have told [the actors] we will be there with them. It’s their turn and labor is rising, not just here, but across the country. People identify with the struggle that we are feeling squeezed. I think that’s happening to workers in all kinds of fields.”

She accused the AMPTP of being “very lackadaisical”. During negotiations with the writers, she said that the studios “did not appear to actually want to make a deal with the writers”

“This is the companies strike, not the writers or the actors, this is on the AMPTP and I think Bob Iger knows that,” she added.

Roswell, New Mexico writer Danny Tolli, who is also a WGA captain, said, “I’m thrilled to stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they join us in their strike for a fair contract.”

John August, a member of the WGA negotiating committee, said that plans for the actors to share the picket lines have been put together, as first revealed by Deadline. “We’ve had actors on the line since the very first day but it looks like tomorrow, we’ll have a bunch more actors out here. Our team has worked with their team to make sure that logistics are as good as they can be… It’s going to be a big change and so we’ll see what happens.”

The Comey Rule and Richard Jewell writer Billy Ray, who has been hosting a strike podcast for Deadline, said that the SAG-AFTRA strike is “the moment that actors saved our business. “It was heading for a cliff by strangling the very people who make it flourish. WORKERS. That had to be fixed. Now it will be,” he said.

Earlier today in New York City, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, VP of WGA East, had some choice words about the strike in her address to the picketers.

“These CEOs said the quiet part out loud, right? The AMPTP talked to Deadline Hollywood and told them that the endgame was to make writers so broke that we lose our apartments and our houses. Their aim was to make us homeless so that we go back to the negotiating table and accept their shitty deal. Yeah, and what did they say about you actors? The militant minority are the reason that you guys aren’t accepting your shitty deal. Is 98% really a minority?! And they say we’re the ones who are bad at math.”

Asked to comment further about Deadline’s report about the studios’ endgame plan for the WGA, she said: “It was shocking to our membership, but I think what they perhaps didn’t realize in letting that information leak was how fired up the members are. The members kind of scratched their heads at their inability to understand what this fight is all about. We’re already in the poorhouse! Many of us are losing homes and unable to pay rent before the strike. That’s the new business model that they introduced in this industry that has taken away the opportunity for middle-class living for anybody. Their comments exposed them. We think it’s lifted their skirts and that it’s energized our membership more than ever.”

Ian Olympio, executive producer of the Starz drama P-Valley, also addressed the Manhattan crowd today. When he was the showrunner’s assistant during Season 1, he said, NBCUniversal ponied up some money for a pilot program called the Support Staff Training Academy, which is on pause of the strike. “But we will be picking it back up,” he said. “Especially after today’s comments from [Disney CEO Bob] Iger.”

Olympio added: “For the program, we went through 400 applications and we got together a group of 20 people — 10 writers assistants, 10 script coordinators — and we spent four weeks, you know, weekends, double days, training them on how to do these highly skilled and technically difficult jobs and giving them an opportunity to learn and to create community amongst each other. The support staff is filled with young writers who are the future of this industry for understanding that having more diverse, well-trained support staff creates a more inclusive guild full of people who are able to sail through their careers.”

Nate Charny, a two-time Emmy-winning writer for The Colbert Report who followed its star Stephen Colbert to CBS’ The Late Show, started as an intern, then became a production assistant, executive assistant and writer’s assistant before joining the writing staff. So he has walked the walk.

“For many of you, this is probably the first time anyone’s ever thanked you for doing your job,” he tyold the crowd. “As assistants, we’re used to being undervalued by our rich bosses, but that changes once you become a writer. We are undervalued by even richer bosses.”

He then rattled off the stages of many young writers’ career path.

“Many writers don’t know what it’s like to start from the bottom. Interns: Don’t talk to the writers. Just keep your head down and the cereal stocked.

“Production assistants: Help with every aspect of how a show gets made. They even get to write for TV, if you count petty-cash reports.

“Executive assistants: Showrunners can’t make one episode of television without you.

“Writer’s assistants are the reason audiences think comedy writers are the funniest people in the world.”

Charny added: “I worked my way up the ladder for six years before getting hired as a writer. Some people say the pipeline to become a writer is broken. This is not true. There is no pipeline.

“There are hundreds of jobs out there for late-night writers. Do you know how many writer’s assistant jobs there are in New York City? Six. The industry is not built for you to succeed. And yet, you’ve made it this far. You’ve already beaten the odds a dozen times. Writing should be a career not a lottery prize.”

The Tonight Show‘s Questlove wasn’t on hand for the rally but donated some burritos from Taco Combi to the striking writers and their supporters.

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