SAG strike: Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson, more stars descend on picket lines
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BURBANK, Calif. − Actors are braving the hot California sun in order to make their voices heard.
Hundreds of members of SAG-AFTRA and the WGA descended on four major sites in the Los Angeles area Friday morning for the actors union's first day of picketing. The writers union has been on strike since early May, and at a Thursday afternoon press conference, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher announced the actors union's decision to join writers on the picket line starting Friday.
Outside of Warner Bros. Studios, professional actors young and old walked up and down the sidewalks, shouting and holding picket signs. Some brought their spouses and children, and many encouraged passing cars to honk their horns in support, as several vehicles loudly obliged.
Other Southern California sites that drew picketers Friday included the headquarters of Netflix, Paramount, Disney and Fox Studios. Stars including Rosario Dawson, Frances Fisher, Sharon Lawrence and Josh Gad were among them, while Jason Sudeikis picketed NBCUniversal headquarters in New York.
With temperatures over 90 degrees and limited shade, some attendees carried spray bottles, offering to spritz sweaty strikers with cool water. Massive posters on the side of a Warner Bros. building, including one for Greta Gerwig's highly anticipated "Barbie," loomed over the crowd.
Around noon, a bus carrying the stars of the show − Drescher and the union's national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland − arrived, and were immediately swarmed by a sea of strikers. Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland made their way down the picket line trailed by a large crowd, stopping at shady spots to deliver remarks.
"Right now, we discussed what it would cost if it went for six months, so we're looking for the long haul," Drescher told USA TODAY Thursday. "The gravity of a commitment like this is not lost on any of us. It's major. But we also see that we have no future and no livelihood unless we take this action, unfortunately."
More: Fran Drescher says actors guild ready for a long strike: 'I felt pumped'
Drescher gave an impassioned speech at Thursday's press conference, which followed a stalemate in negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, an organization representing 12 major studios and streamers. The issues on the table, she said, include actors' salaries in an industry where norms have been upended in recent years by streaming, and the potential use of artificial intelligence to replace actors' labor. The SAG-AFTRA strike, combined with the ongoing WGA strike, creates a work stoppage that has brought most movie and television production worldwide to a halt.
More: Game shows, soaps and British actors: What TV will look like during the SAG actor's strike
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SAG-AFTRA strike begins: Actors hit chaotic picket lines
