‘SNL’ Writer Julio Torres Dares Studios to Do the ‘Unthinkable’: Pay CEOs ‘Slightly Less Than Obscene Amounts of Money’

Julio Torres dared Hollywood studios Friday to “massively reinvent the way that they do business” and to do “the unthinkable: paying their CEOs just slightly less than obscene amounts of money.”

“Enough is enough with the greed,” he said while picketing in New York City, flanked by several recognizable stars, among them Susan Sarandon, Rosie Perez, Ariana DeBose and Wilson Cruz.

Torres — a former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” writer and star of HBO’s “Los Espookys” and writer, director and star of A24’s upcoming “Problemista” — spoke for five minutes to a cheering crowd about joining the masses across industries in the coined “Hot Strike Summer,” his experience moving to the United States from El Salvador during the Occupy Wall Street movement and the parallels he sees therein.

He also emphasized his hope that Hollywood studios will begin doing more than just lip service to the so-called American Dream and actually help dismantle the barriers that keep creatives from making a living wage today.

“We strike so that our industry lives up to the values we so successfully sell to the public — so that we can go beyond the presentation, beyond inspiration and into the actual practice of good,” Torres said. “Our industry loves the American Dream as a concept. They love the idea of an extraordinary individual succeeding against all odds, against all obstacles. Maybe the CEOs don’t realize that they now have become the odds and the obstacles and that we’re not just going to elbow each other to be the one or the two that finally makes it to the top, but that we now stand united.”

Matters of immigration, race and cultural identity are often echoed in Torres’ work as a creative — from his stand-up comedy to his work with HBO to “Problemista,” the latter of which is a surrealist comedy of a 20-something toy designer in NYC facing deportation.

“We strike so that actors and writers working with huge studios and highly profitable streaming services in the richest country in the world don’t worry like my parents do in one of the poorest,” he said Friday.

Read Torres’ speech in full below:

“I came to the U.S. in 2009 around the time of the Occupy Wall Street movement. At the time, I remember being confused as to what, exactly, they were protesting. Some signs talked about climate change, others wrote about gun control, taxing the rich, funding schools. To me, at the time, it felt like a potpourri of causes that had nothing to do with each other and I couldn’t figure it out.

“Now, 15 years later, I’m part of several strikes during this Hot Strike Summer. Nurses, drivers, flight attendants, writers, actors — all standing up to demand fairness in our industries. As it turns out, the Occupy Wall Street causes and all of our causes are different parts of the same monster: relentless, unregulated corporate greed. We march and strike with different asks, but the core problem is the same.

“I joined the WGA when I got a writing job at ‘Saturday Night Live.’ That job was the first time I ever experienced financial stability. My parents, a civil engineer and an architect, are both college-educated, hard-working, talented and productive, but live in a country where that’s just not enough.

“I remember being perplexed by how, in the U.S., I finally had health insurance, I could pay my rent, get a mattress larger than a twin. I could even send money to my parents, all because of my writing.

“But that’s because the union ensured that if I was writing something that generated money — and ‘SNL’ generates a lot of money — I would receive a fair and proportionate amount of it.

“Not long ago, I got to direct for the first time, and I felt prepared, because under my old school writing job in broadcast, I experienced production and post-production. I had been on countless sets… We strike so that younger, talented people get to learn this and be a part of the creative and grow from it and not be just replaceable, overworked freelancers.

“We strike so that actors and writers working with huge studios and highly profitable streaming services in the richest country in the world don’t worry like my parents do in one of the poorest.

“We strike so that the new me doesn’t come to this country and instead of writing their own favorite story through their own eyes find that they can’t because studios would rather use AI to plagiarize mine without my consent.

“We strike so that our industry lives up to the values we so successfully sell to the public, so that we can go beyond the presentation, beyond inspiration and into the actual practice of good. Our industry loves the American Dream as a concept. They love the idea of an extraordinary individual succeeding against all odds, against all obstacles. Maybe the CEOs don’t realize that they now have become the odds and the obstacles and that we’re not just going to elbow each other to be the one or the two that finally makes it to the top, but that we now stand united.

“And when we cross that path together, we better hold the gate open for our PAs, our gaffers, our teamsters and everyone who helps make obscene amounts of money… We may have different jobs, ask for different things, show different priorities in our signs, but when we follow the money, it all sprouts from the same seed. Well, we figured it out.

“Maybe the studios are going to have to massively reinvent the way that they do business and doing the unthinkable: paying their CEOs just slightly less than obscene amounts of money. Enough is enough with the greed — thank you.”

Deadline first covered Torres’ speech via a video posted to social media here.

For all of TheWrap’s strike coverage, click here.

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