Zachary Quinto Responds To Below-The-Line “Outrage” As Actors Remain On Strike; ‘Star Trek’ Star Demands “AMPTP, End This”

Anthony D'Alessandro and Dominic Patten
·4 min read
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As SAG-AFTRA and the studios continue to go back and forth with proposals to reach a new contract and end a nearly six-month-long actors strike, Zachary Quinto spoke in a video posted to Instagram about the individual consequences of the labor action.

Taking to social media for a third time in less than 24 hours, the Star Trek star on Monday responded to the feedback he received from “below-the-line colleagues” since his Instagram video the day before in which he expressed his doubts about the “last, best, and final offer” put forth by the AMPTP to actors, and insisted his fellow actors “hold strong” for a better deal and not cave.

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Quinto acknowledged that the below-the-line folks who’ve been out of work for several months “are tired” and “really struggling.”

As Deadline has reported, the California economy has seen a $6.5 billion loss from the double WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, with 45,000 jobs in the entertainment sector lost. In addition to below-the-line workers being unemployed, studios, streamers and producers have cut their staffs, including at Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, ESPN, Paramount, Conde Nast, Spotify, Fifth Season, Vice, Lionsgate and Roku.

Quinto is an employed actor and the star of a new NBC medical drama series, Dr. Wolf, which was picked up a few weeks ago.

“I hear you, I empathize with you and I recognize as a person in the public eye, who is beating a drum for ‘Hold the line,’ I can be a lightning rod for the argument, ‘That’s easy for you to say. You’re not being asked to sacrifice nearly as much as we are.’ And there is a validity to that argument, I understand that,” said Quinto in response to below-the-line workers.

Quinto defended that he “made significant contributions to the Motion Picture Television Fund” and encouraged his followers to do the same.

“This is not about me. This is not about getting richer. This is about protection for all us,” defended the American Horror Story thespian.

“Because where this is not about money, this is about the implementation of technology that could in due course render all our contributions to this industry obsolete if we let it. If we give ground now, we will lose ground forever.”

“While your outrage is justified,” Quinto told those below-the-line workers listening, “I encourage you to channel it in the right direction.”

Watch the video below:

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A post shared by Zachary Quinto (@zacharyquinto)

Quinto then pointed a finger at the CEO Gang of Four and beseeched them to bring an end to the strike.

“We’re all in this together as laborers, and we’re up against the corporations that have the power to end this today – the AMPTP, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav, Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Carol Lombardini…”

Quinto expounded, “I appeal to you to understand what you’re asking of all the people who make the contributions that generate the billions of dollars that your companies and boards and you yourselves enjoy.

“You can end it today with compassion, with understanding and with humanity that exists behind the wall of corporate ideology. Come to the table with your hearts and recognize you hold the power to end this now.

“But until you do, we have no choice but to stand up and say, ‘We have to fight for what is fair.’

“And in that fight, I pledge to do everything I can to support the people who are making sacrifices that they never asked for,” he said. “But none of us asked for this level of greed to define all of our capacity to earn a living doing what we love.”

On Saturday, Netflix’s co-CEO Sarandos told guild leaders about the studios’ offer on the table: “We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you.”

Quinto signed off on his Instagram video today, “AMPTP, end this.”

As Deadline reported this afternoon, a deal may not be happening tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be returning to talks before evening.

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