Hollywood is on strike. It started with the writers and it has now gone to the actors. According to The New York Times, Hollywood is experiencing its first actor-writer strike since before the 1960s. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is the leading union behind the strike. The Writers Guild of America went on strike on May 2, and SAG-AFTRA followed on July 14.
According to The New York Times, both actors and writers have asked the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for better residuals and compensations. With streaming services, actors and writers no longer get residuals like they once did with television. Another big reason behind the strike is AI. According to SAG-AFTRA, the writers and actors fear their jobs may slowly vanish due to AI improving.
SAG-AFTRA has many more rules to their strike, unlike WGA. SAG-AFTRA members are not allowed to do any on-camera or off-camera work. They can not do any background acting, stand-ins, auditions, rehearsals and no publicity. For example, the cast of Oppenheimer left in the middle of their premiere in London on July 13 when news came out about the start of the strike. This led to the cancelation of the film’s other premieres. The actors are also not allowed to do any form of promotion for their new work coming out. This means no publicity tours or posting on social media about their new projects.
According to The New York Times, the part that affects the movie and TV viewers is the fact that many productions have been postponed, canceled and release dates pushed back indefinitely. As an avid TV and movie watcher this is very frustrating because seasons of shows that have already taken a while will take even longer. Stranger Things, Euphoria and the new movie with Zendaya, The Challengers, have already been pushed back.
As someone who isn’t a part of the industry, it can be hard to understand the struggles that they are facing due to how rich we think they are and how famous they are so it doesn’t matter. Since the actors and writers are on strike it affects the entire industry such as the makeup artists, the videographers, the lighting technicians and so many more people who are out of a job for the time being.
There are certain aspects of the strike I do understand and agree with such as the writers being overworked by huge production companies and the fear of AI taking the jobs of writers and some actors. However, I have a hard time understanding the actor’s side in the argument over residuals. I think that some parts of the strike are harmful, especially for the thousands of behind-the-scenes workers who are out of a job.
