Tens of thousands of Hollywood actors will go on strike on Friday, effectively shutting down the huge film and television industry.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) announced a strike after actors’ talks with studios over their demands over pay cuts and the threat of artificial intelligence ended without an agreement.
“This is a moment of history, a moment of truth – if we don’t act with pride and confidence right now, we’re all going to be in trouble,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said at a news conference after the board’s unanimous strike vote.
The strike will officially start on Friday at 10 a.m. Latvian time, and the actors will join the screenwriters, starting the first Hollywood “double strike” since 1960.
Screenwriters have been protesting in front of the main offices of “Disney”, “Netflix” and other studios since May 2, taking part in the longest and widest strike organized by the Screenwriters Guild of the USA.
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors. The previous strike it organized took place in 1980 and lasted more than three months.
98 percent of members of the Screen Actors Guild have voted to go on strike if no deal is reached.
The Screen Actors Guild said after talks broke down that actors’ pay had been “severely undercut by the streaming ecosystem” and warned that “artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to the creative professions”.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, said it was “deeply disappointed” by SAG-AFTRA’s decision to end negotiations.
Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that expectations for actors and writers are “not realistic” and called the decision to strike “very troubling.”
2023-07-14 05:08:29
#Hollywood #actors #strike
