US actors poised to strike as talks between SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios fail
American stars are demanding better pay and increased safeguarding around AI rights, leaving Hollywood facing a second industry walkout amid the ongoing writers' strikes.
Thursday 13 July 2023 20:33, UK
US actors are poised to go on strike after negotiations between parties broke down.
Actors' trade union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) - which represents 160,000 performers - said it voted unanimously to recommend a strike after talks with Hollywood studios failed to reach an agreement. A vote will take place later on Thursday.
Read more: Why Hollywood stars could walk out and what could it mean for the film industry
If a strike goes ahead - which is looking increasingly likely - and actors join the picket lines of striking US writers - Hollywood would almost immediately shut down.
The effect would be felt globally - with one of the potential first casualties of strikes being the London premiere of one of the biggest movies of the summer, Oppenheimer, due to take place in Leicester Square on Thursday evening.
The high-profile event was pulled forward by one hour at short notice on Wednesday night, potentially to cushion it should any strike action be announced later on Thursday.
Writers in America have now been striking for two months, and should the actors' strike go ahead, it would be the first time since 1960 that both guilds have walked out simultaneously.
Two of the actors' big demands are higher pay and safeguards against unauthorised use of their images through artificial intelligence (AI).
A statement from SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called the studio's response to actors' demands "insulting and disrespectful", claiming they had been "stonewalled completely" on certain issues.
She said: "SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP's [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] responses to the union's most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.
"The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us. Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal."
Hollywood studios say they are 'deeply disappointed'
AMPTP - which negotiates on behalf of Netflix, Disney and other companies - said it was "deeply disappointed" that SAG-AFTRA had decided to walk away from negotiations.
The group said it had offered "historic pay and residual increases, a ground-breaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses" and other gains to actors.
Their statement went on: "Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods."
SAG-AFTRA's contract with AMPTP came to an end on Wednesday, after being extended from the original expiry date of 30 June.
Worries over artificial intelligence
Potentially the biggest sticking point in negotiations is over AI, with actors keen to see a guarantee the technology will not be used to replace the duties performed by actors, potentially rendering them obsolete.
Stars including Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves are among the actors who have recently been the subject of widely viewed unauthorized deepfakes - realistic yet fabricated videos created by artificial intelligence algorithms.
AI is also one of the key concerns of striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) members - who like actors are eager to put safeguards in place to prevent generative AI replacing their creative duties.
Speaking about the potential strike, actor Matt Damon called the reasons for striking "unbelievably important", while last month actress Rebecca Ferguson told Sky News she was "scared" by advances in AI and the resulting threat to creatives in the film industry.
These strikes are not about Hollywood stars on six-figure salaries
Hollywood is entering uncharted territory. The last time actors and writers were on strike at the same time was 1960. Ronald Reagan was the president of the actors' union, long before he made it to the White House.
The TV and film industry is a very different beast now and that is part of the reason they are going on strike. Actors feel they are being strong armed as the streaming giants become the dominant force. They say the residual, or royalty payments they are receiving from the likes of Netflix and Amazon when TV shows and films are replayed are wholly inadequate.
Walking the red carpet this week Matt Damon pointed out that actors must make $26,000 a year to qualify for health insurance through the union. He said falling residual payments were stopping struggling actors from reaching this threshold.
I spoke to one such actor this week who echoed that sentiment. She said that this is not about Hollywood stars on "six-figure salaries" but about drawing a line in the sand and achieving a fair deal so jobbing actors can make ends meet.
The production studios and streaming giants say they have put offers of "historic pay increases" on the table. But the actors' union strongly disagrees and as a result, film and TV production is about to come to a crushing halt. It will remain dormant until a deal is reached, but right now the two parties seem very far apart.
It's a question of who blinks first.
Streaming issues
Actors' base pay - particularly around streaming royalties which are much lower than traditional broadcast rates - is also a key factor in negotiations.
The streaming boom has provided an increased pool of work for performers - however, series have become shorter, breaks between seasons longer, and the unions say that although series budgets are increasing, that increase is not being reflected in the share of the money coming to performers.
An additional factor is the question over whether actors should be paid for self-taped auditions (the time, equipment and production costs of taping previously fell to casting and productions teams, but has now been passed on to the performers).
Hollywood could go dark
Studios already struggling to generate programming for streaming services and the autumn TV schedule due to the ongoing writers' strike would face further shutdown should an actors' strike take place, affecting both ongoing and future production as well as promoting completed projects.
With no scripts, and no performers to bring them to life, many studios would fall dark.
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Meanwhile, promotion of completed projects - including big tentpole movies set to premiere over the summer - would fall away, with no actors attending red carpets, speaking on TV shows or giving interviews to print journalists.
Many US broadcast networks have already introduced a tranche of reality shows - a genre not affected by current strikes - to their autumn schedule.
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Outside the movie and TV industry itself, other businesses including caterers, prop suppliers and others linked to Hollywood production will also feel the effects.
If strikes were to run into many months, next year's theatrical release schedules could run into difficulties, potentially having a knock on effect on film festivals leading into awards season, and more immediately San Diego Comic-Con, due to take place later this month.
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While the US actors' strike would not directly affect those working on Equity contracts here in the UK, British performers who were members of SAG-AFTRA and working in the US would be drawn into any striking action.
The UK's actors' union, Equity, would also be likely to advise its own membership to pause any work governed by SAG-AFTRA contracts, in a similar vein to the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, which instructed its members not to work on projects within the Writers Guild of America's jurisdiction at the start of the writers' strike.