Hollywood actors’ strike approaches 100th day, no deal yet. What’s next?
Inside the Actors-Studio Talks That Failed
LOS ANGELES—While screenwriters are busy back at work, film, and TV actors remain on picket lines, with the longest strike in their history set to hit 100 days on Saturday after talks broke off with studios. Here’s a look at where things stand, how their stretched-out standoff compares to past strikes, and what happens next.
The same group of chief executives from the biggest studios had made a major deal just over a week earlier with striking writers, whose leaders celebrated their gains on many issues actors are also fighting for: long-term pay, consistency of employment, and control over the use of artificial intelligence.
But the actors’ talks were tepid, with days off between sessions and no reports of progress. Then studios abruptly ended them on Oct. 11, saying the actors’ demands were exorbitantly expensive and the two sides were too far apart to continue.
“We only met with them a couple of times, Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told The Associated Press soon after the talks broke off. “Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then “Bye bye. I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table?”
The reasons, according to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), included a union demand for a fee for each subscriber to streaming services.
“SAG-AFTRA gave the member companies an ultimatum: either agree to a proposal for a tax on subscribers as well as all other open items, or else the strike would continue,” the AMPTP said in a statement to the AP. “The member companies responded to SAG-AFTRA’s ultimatum that unfortunately, the tax on subscribers poses an untenable economic burden.”
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, one of the executives in on the bargaining sessions, told investors on an earnings call Wednesday that “This really broke our momentum unfortunately.”
SAG-AFTRA leaders said it was ridiculous to frame this demand as as though it were a tax on customers, and said it was the executives themselves who wanted to shift from a model based on a show’s popularity to one based on number of subscribers.
“We made big moves in their direction that have just been ignored and not responded to,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, told the AP. “We made changes to our AI proposal. We made dramatic changes to what used to be our streaming revenue share proposal,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
The studios said just after the talks broke off that the per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million annually, a figure SAG-AFTRA said was a vast overestimate.
What Happens Next in the Actors Strike?
The actors are in unscripted territory, with no end in sight. Their union has never been on a strike this long, nor been on strike at all since before many of its members were born. Not even its veteran leaders, like Crabtree-Ireland, with the union for 20 years, have found themselves in quite these circumstances.
As they did for months before the talks broke off, members and leaders will rally, picket and speak out publicly until the studios signal a willingness to talk again. No one knows how long that will take. SAG-AFTRA says it is willing to resume at any time, but that won’t change its demands.
“I think that they think that we’re going to cower,” Drescher said. “But that’s never going to happen because this is a crossroads and we must stay on course.”
How Did Previous Actors Strikes Play Out?
Hollywood actors strikes have been less frequent and shorter than those by writers. The Screen Actors Guild (they added the “AFTRA” in a 2011 merger) has gone on strike against film and TV studios only three times in its history.
In each case, emerging technology fueled the dispute. In 1960—the only previous time actors and writers struck simultaneously—the central issue was actors seeking pay for when their work in film was aired on television, compensation the industry calls residuals. The union, headed by future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was a smaller and much less formal entity then. The vote to strike took place in the home of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, the parents of current SAG-AFTRA member and vocal striker Jamie Lee Curtis.
Mid-strike, the actors and studios called a truce so all could attend the Academy Awards—a move forbidden under today’s union rules. Host Bob Hope called the gathering “Hollywood’s most glamorous strike meeting.”
In the end, a compromise was reached where SAG dropped demands for residuals from past films in exchange for a donation to their pension fund, along with a formula for payment when future films aired on TV. Their 42-day work stoppage began and ended all within the span of the much longer writers strike.
A 1980 strike would be the actors’ longest for film and television until this year. That time, they were seeking payment for their work appearing on home video cassettes and cable TV, along with significant hikes in minimum compensation for roles. A tentative deal was reached with significant gains but major compromises in both areas. Union leadership declared the strike over after 67 days, but many members were unhappy and balked at returning to work. It was nearly a month before leaders could rally enough votes to ratify the deal.
This time, it was the Emmy Awards that fell in the middle of the strike. The Television Academy held a ceremony, but after a boycott was called, only one acting winner, Powers Boothe, was there to accept his trophy.
What’s Happening to Movies and Tv Shows?
The return of writers has gotten the Hollywood production machine churning again, with rooms full of scribes penning new seasons of shows that had been suspended and film writers finishing scripts. But the finished product will await the end of actors strike, and production will remain suspended many TV shows and dozens of films, including “Wicked,” “Deadpool 3,” and “Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part 2.”
The Emmys, whose nominations were announced the same day the actors strike was called, opted to wait for the stars this time and move their ceremony from September to January, though that date could be threatened too.
The Oscars are a long way off in March, but the campaigns to win them are usually well underway by now. With some exceptions—non-studio productions approved by the union—performers are prohibited from promoting their films at press junkets or on red carpets. Director Martin Scorsese has been giving interviews about his new Oscar contender “ Killers of the Flower Moon.” Star and SAG-AFTRA member Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t.
What are the main demands of the actors in the negotiations?
New day was set for next week, and we waited and waited, and they never came back to the table.”
The lack of progress and the abrupt ending of talks have left both actors and fans frustrated. Many are questioning why the studios were able to reach a deal with the writers but not with the actors. Some are speculating that the studios may have been more willing to negotiate with the writers because they feared the impact of a prolonged strike on their upcoming projects.
However, the actors are not backing down. They remain committed to fighting for their demands, which include fair pay, better working conditions, and greater representation for underrepresented groups in the industry. They argue that their demands are not only necessary for their well-being but also for the overall health and diversity of the entertainment industry.
One of the main issues of contention between the actors and the studios is the use of artificial intelligence. Actors are concerned that the growing use of AI technology in film and TV production could lead to the replacement of human actors. They argue that while AI may have its benefits, it should not come at the expense of human creativity and expression.
In addition to the use of AI, the actors also want long-term pay and consistency of employment. Many actors in the industry are freelancers, and they face uncertainty and instability in their careers. They want contracts that guarantee them employment for longer periods of time and fair compensation for their work.
The strike has garnered support from other unions and organizations within the entertainment industry. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA) have expressed solidarity with the actors and have called on the studios to return to the negotiating table. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents the actors, has also received support from politicians and advocacy groups who believe in the importance of fair treatment and representation in the industry.
As the strike reaches its 100th day, the future remains uncertain. It is unclear when or if the studios will be willing to resume talks with the actors. In the meantime, actors continue to picket and demonstrate, using their voices and visibility to bring attention to their cause.
Regardless of the outcome, the actors’ strike has shed light on the systemic issues
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