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The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), an organization representing a diverse assembly of roughly 160,000 film and television performers, declared an industry-wide strike at the stroke of midnight on Thursday. This pivotal event, which is coming into effect following a protracted period of fruitless contract negotiations with production studios, marks the initiation of the first collective walkout in 63 years. The outcome? An abrupt and undeniable paralysis of the colossal cinematic and television industry.
At 0701 GMT, the union posted on its Twitter account a monochrome image coupled with a simple but resonant message: “12:01 a.m. PT That’s a wrap!” The organization had previously issued an edict to strike after failing to reach an agreement with the studios regarding decreasing remuneration and the looming specter of artificial intelligence.
“This is a moment of history that is a moment of truth,” declared SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher at a press conference, announcing the union board’s unanimous decision to strike. “If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines.”
Writers have been waging their own battle for a whopping 11 weeks, staging demonstrations against industry titans such as Disney and Netflix. Their demands for an increase in their pay scales, alongside safeguards over the burgeoning use of AI, have been systematically dismissed.
The disruption has triggered an inevitable reshuffling of the film studios’ schedules, with the potential for significant releases to be deferred if the strike continues. It is also anticipated that this will impact the promotion of some of the year’s most anticipated releases, a setback that hits at the peak of the industry’s lucrative summer blockbuster season.
Drescher alleged to AFP that SAG-AFTRA was attempting to prolong the negotiations for another two weeks, in an act purportedly orchestated by the studios with the primary intention of successfully promoting their slate of summer films. She further contended that the alleged duplicity allowed the studios to hold premieres for significant blockbusters such as Warner’s “Barbie,” Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” and Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.”
Standing firmly in solidarity with the strike, the ensemble of “Oppenheimer” executed a demonstrative walkout at their London premiere. Kenneth Branagh, a renowned British actor, expressed his support on the red carpet just prior to the announcement of the strike, highlighting the critical nature of the industry’s current state and the urgent need for tough dialogues to take place.
The members of SAG-AFTRA, ranging from marquee stars like Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and Glenn Close, to actors performing minor roles in TV series, find themselves part of a kind of historical replay. The last industrial action of this magnitude was undertaken by the actors’ union in 1980, a strike that lasted longer than three months.
The present discontent is caused by the dramatic degradation of actors’ remuneration, attributed largely to the rise of the digital streaming landscape. The Guild has cautioned that the advent and integration of AI pose a veritable existential threat to the creative professions.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) argues it has presented “historic” pay increases and a groundbreaking AI proposal, claiming that the Union has “regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.” But this narrative has been contested by renowned industry figures like Phil Lord, the creative force behind successes such as “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Lego Movie.”
While the writers’ strike has already considerably curtailed the production of films and television shows, the actors’ strike promises to cast a far more comprehensive shadow. SAG-AFTRA and writers are unanimous in their insistence on receiving guarantees about the utilization of AI.
SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland castigated the studios’ recent AI proposal, stating it suggested that background actors should be scanned and grant companies total ownership over these scans and their image and likeness in exchange for a single day’s pay.
With AFP
