Indie Producers Hope for SAG-AFTRA Waivers to Get U.S. Actors Working in Canada

Etan Vlessing
·5 min read
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Canadian film and TV productions with American actors attached in key lead roles might not have to grind to a halt on soundstages in Toronto and Vancouver after SAG-AFTRA called for a history-making strike stateside.

On July 10, days ahead of the strike action, leading SAG-AFTRA officials met with agents representing top-tier Hollywood actors and said union members would be allowed to work on ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) projects in Canada as a double strike featuring American writers and actors gets underway.

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And that has Canadian indie producers eyeing waivers from SAG-AFTRA to get American talent working on local originals. “They (SAG-AFTRA) have begun to announce certain waivers that they’ve granted to indie projects. And I would expect that they are not trying to shut down the indie world internationally and that they will find ways to be reasonable and help the producers work,” Shawn Williamson, whose company Brightlight Pictures produces the ABC medical drama The Good Doctor in Vancouver for Sony Pictures Television, and who also has a big slate of his own original productions.

Williamson says it’s too early to get clear guidance from the American union on how waivers will work, but that lines of communication have begun to open after the launch of the Hollywood actors strike. “I expect there’s a way that we could communicate with SAG, to find a working mechanism to engage SAG members,” Williamson added.

The logistics of securing waivers from SAG-AFTRA to allow American actors to work north of the border remain unclear as negotiations stalled between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which reps major studios.

As things stand, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that SAG-AFTRA performers will have to check with their union that an addendum to Global Rule One — which requires members to work only under a union contract — is in place before accepting work in Canada. If that Global Rule One waiver is granted, the American performer will be able to work north of the border.

There are other sticking points. If an ACTRA project originated in Canada, and not Los Angeles, and is aimed at the Canadian and other non-U.S. markets, and not solely the U.S., then a waiver might similarly be possible.

Against that backdrop, Canadian indie producers are busily meeting with lawyers and business affairs execs to talk about how to secure waivers to engage American actors with SAG-AFTRA cards.

“Yes, we are absolutely looking to engage an American SAG actor on our feature Sharp Corner to shoot in Nova Scotia in September. We are in negotiations now with a U.S. actor. We need a waiver or whatever to allow us to engage under Global Rule One, otherwise we will not be able to shoot. We are an ACTRA show,” Paul Barkin, president and a producer of Alcina Pictures, tells THR. The thriller, written and directed by Jason Buxton, is in discussions with an unnamed American actor for the lead role in the film.

If SAG-AFTRA allows waivers for its members to work in Canada amid the Hollywood strike it will have implications for union jurisdiction north of the border. ACTRA said its top union officials were bargaining and were not available for direct comment. “We are monitoring the situation and will be putting out more information as soon as possible,” a spokesperson added.

Officials at SAG-AFTRA were not available for comment. As the double Hollywood strike dawns, Canadian content makers are looking to ACTRA for eventual cues on how to engage American actors for work north of the border. “For any SAG-AFTRA talent we work with, we will abide by whatever is determined by ACTRA,” Mark Bishop, co-CEO and executive producer at marblemedia, tells THR.

An ACTRA project would need to respect SAG-AFTRA terms and conditions. If a production is destined mainly for the U.S. market and the casting was done in Los Angeles, then that project, whatever its Canadian financing or credentials, is not likely to get a waiver.

The U.S. actors union would instead look, as has been past practice, to stop its members, including dual SAG and ACTRA members, from working for non-signatory productions in Toronto and Vancouver, strike or not.

Adam Rodness, co-founder and president of Toronto-based 5’7” Films, tells THR he’s talking to some American actors about work on a follow-up and untitled movie to his 2020 hybrid crime and horror comedy Faking a Murderer, but doesn’t want to breach the U.S. jurisdiction of SAG-AFTRA amid a strike by attaching U.S. actors ahead of a Manitoba shoot starting in October.

“For me, it’s a tough situation. We need to support the SAG actors. We know what they’re doing and what they’re striking for as positive reinforcements for the industry. We don’t want to act as scabs, trying to get around union lines, and to be those people,” Rodness, who is an actor and an indie producer, says.

He adds that, absent a waiver from SAG-AFTRA, he could just as well engage top-tier Canadian actors who live in the U.S. and hold both SAG and ACTRA cards for when his cameras roll north of the border. “I wouldn’t want to stand in the way. The industry is at a very weird time. Solidarity, standing with these guys, is definitely important,” Rodness notes.

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