It’s been over two months since the historic strike was commenced by the Writers Guild of America, over two months of disintegrated film and scripted TV productions, project delays, and other such setbacks as screenwriters mutiny against their downtrodden condition in the industry. And now, in a show of solidarity, even Hollywood actors are joining the legion of writers on the picket lines. But it looks like the former aren’t particularly better off either because things just got more complicated.
Actors Get Disrespected After Joining the WGA Strike
Joining the WGA on the battleground are Hollywood actors spoken for by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) as they too raise their voices against meager pay and unfair treatment.
In what seems to be an immediate domino effect, a flock of actors, including esteemed figures like Jamie Lee Curtis and Issa Rae are uniting with the writers, meanwhile, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Florence Pugh ditched their London premiere to “go and write their picket signs” in the wake of this newfound ordeal. But the president of SAG-AFTRA, Fran Drescher, is concerned about the “insulting and disrespectful” response of the studios in question to the actors, in light of which she issued a powerful speech –
“I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things, how they plead poverty that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.”
On the other side, Disney CEO Bob Iger condemned the “unrealistic” expectations of both the writers and the actors and rebuked them for their seemingly “disruptive” actions.
The SAG-AFTRA & WGA Strike Explained
Earlier this year in May, Hollywood witnessed a sharp decline in television and movie productions with even future films facing an inevitable deferral as the WGA rebelled against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), demanding a rightful increase in base pay along with streaming TV residuals and the guarantee of not being dethroned by artificial intelligence.
Joining more than 10,000 writers are actors represented by the union as they partake in the vehement protests risen from the longstanding labor conflict prevalent in the film and television industry.
Much like the WGA, the SAG-AFTRA, too, is protesting against AMPTP as the deadline for a new contract passed on July 12 without reaching a consensus. And similar to the writers, even the actors are looking for a full-fledged revamp of their working conditions paired with increased wages as AI and streaming services threaten them with an immutable overhaul.
The last time such simultaneous walkouts by two of the biggest unions were carried out, due to which practically the entire industry has entered a state of suspended animation, was more than six decades ago in the 1960s. And now, with tensions higher than ever amid the writers/actors and the studios, Hollywood is currently teetering on precarity as the future remains bleak.
Source: The Guardian
