Hollywood shuts down

The walkout by writers and screen stars won’t affect just the US film industry but production in UK and Europe

The actors’ walk-out coupled with the ongoing writers’ strike essentially means that the production of films and TV shows will more or less come to a halt. This is the first time since 1960 that actors and writers have gone on strike at the same time. What are the reasons behind their strike? How long can it last? Which movies and shows will be affected?

Following the failure of negotiations between their union and motion picture studios on fairer pay and better working conditions, thousands of Hollywood screenwriters who had been on strike for more than two months joined them on Thursday. The action marks the first time since 1960 that writers and actors in Hollywood go on strike at the same time, putting a halt to the production of most films and TV series.

Notably, after the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), the union that represents 160,000 actors, issued the call for the strike, celebrities like Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Cillian Murphy who were present at the London premiere of their upcoming film Oppenheimer left the occasion.

Speaking to the media in Los Angeles, SAG-AFTRA’s President Fran Drescher slammed the Hollywood executives for their greed, saying, “I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us! 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 of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them!”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a trade group that bargains on behalf of Hollywood companies, claimed that while it "worked to reach a reasonable deal at a difficult time for an industry upended by the streaming revolution, which the pandemic sped up," the actors' union "has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for co-workers."

Why have Hollywood actors and writers gone on strike?

Actors and writers both went on strike over problems that are mostly the same. SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America, which represents screenwriters, both advocate for more equitable profit distribution and improved working conditions. They have expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that, particularly since the introduction of the streaming era, the income of actors and authors has fallen for a variety of reasons.

One of them is the drop in residual pay — meaning payments made to actors and writers from repeats of films and programmes they have starred in or have written. “In the old model (the days of broadcast television), they get residuals based on success,” Kim Masters, the editor-in-chief of the Hollywood Reporter, told the BBC. “In the new model, they don’t get to find out what’s going on behind the scenes, because the streamers don’t share.”

Artificial intelligence is a different problem. Actors worry that artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to produce digital representations of their looks and voices without payment or consent, while writers worry that studios would utilise technology to make television and movie scripts.

According to a report by the BBC, studios presented a “ground-breaking proposal” to address the concerns over AI by coming up with certain regulations, however, the SAG-AFTRA’s Drescher rejected the proposal, saying, “They propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan of their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity… If you think that’s a ground-breaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”

The Nanny star and current Sag-Aftra president Fran Drescher claims that studio and streaming executives have been "insulting and disrespectful" in their comments thus far.

Cox, the Scottish actor who played the brutal Logan Roy in Succession, has expressed similar concerns. He stated on Friday that "if our residuals go down, it means our health insurance isn't going to be met". “The streaming services have shot themselves in the foot because they’ve said, ‘We’re going very well on this front.’ And when we called them to task and said, ‘What about our residuals, what about our money?’ everything kind of closes down and … you know, it’s not going to happen.”

WHAT DO THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS SAY?

The AMPTP represents over 350 American television and film production companies in collective bargaining negotiations with entertainment industry trade unions like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Directors Guild of America, among others.

• The trade association claimed that its proposal included "historic pay and residual increases" as well as larger contributions to health and pension plans.

• AMPTP added that, among other benefits, its plan allays the union's worries about audition protections and a "groundbreaking" approach to artificial intelligence.

"A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for, as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life. The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry," the AMPTP shared in a press statement.

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