SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will be doing a tour of Hollywood picket lines tomorrow morning, after her rousing speech saying they were victimized by the AMPTP, which she called a “very greedy entity” and that the studios were on the wrong side of history.
But despite not officially joining the picket lines for their own strike until tomorrow, there were plenty of actors out in force, as they have been for all 73 days of the writers strike.
The Afterparty star Ike Barinholtz, who has been outside Paramount for much of the strike, was walking the like with Michael McDonald, who was on Madtv and has recently appeared in What We Do In The Shadows and How I Met Your Father.
“We’re triply angry, we’ve triple had it up to here. We’re excited SAG is going to start coming out and show some solidarity,” Barinholtz told Deadline.
McDonald added, “Maybe we can collectively get this thing done and get back to work.”
Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland noted that the talks didn’t come close to a deal.
After their press conference, Michelle Hurd and Ron Ostrow, members of the SAG-AFTRA national board, revealed some more details of the negotiations after Drescher’s speech.
Ostrow, who has appeared in series such as The West Wing and Scandal, said, “There were definitely moments when we thought there might be some progress. On the last day, we had a very serious discussion where it looked like there might be a glimmer. It turned out to evaporate. We were across the table at 11:59am. Even as we sat across the table, Duncan said if you want to make a deal, make it right now, we’re ready. Their response was we’re uncivilized.
Star Trek: Picard star Hurd added, “In the beginning of the conversation we put across the revenue sharing, they didn’t come back to us at all, 35 days, that’s disrespectful.”
All of this comes as a number of high-profile actors have been voicing their support for the strike. Jamie Lee Curtis said, “It looks like it’s time to take down the masks and pick up the signs.”
A Black Lady Sketch Show star Yvette Nicole Brown, who is also on the SAG-AFTRA national board, said that she’ll be joining the picket lines tomorrow. “We all got together last week to create our signs. I was on sticks! When you’re out there without a splinter thanks to the duct tape, think of ya girl!,” she wrote on social media.
Out on the picket lines, many writers were gathered around their phones to watch Drescher’s impassioned speech.
Brian Kim McCormick, who starred in Kingdom and did voice work for Squid Game, was outside Netflix and highlighted the most important issues for actors.
“This is a really important time to address issues like streaming rights, residuals and pay and how that’s all being distributed. On top of that AI technology that’s out there, it’s very effective right now and if we don’t have language in place for future iterations, we’re going to be swimming without a lifeboat so it’s really important for us to get that stuff taken care of now,” he told Deadline.
Dana Lee, who starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm, agreed streaming rights and AI are two of the key topics. “The two major issues are streaming rights – that hasn’t been addressed for a long time and when it started out it was considered new media but it’s been quite a few years now and they have made a ton of money and the actors and writers are not making the kind of money they should. AI is a huge problem too,” he said.
Fellow actor Yong Kim added, “I just don’t want to be taken advantage of and treated like a joke.”
As a chant of ‘Pay Your Actors’ emanated outside Netflix’s Hollywood HQ, Mark Roman, who has appeared in series such as The Lincoln Lawyer and The Offer, said he was happy that Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland called the strike. “Finally! It’s been great to be a plus one to the prom for the past few months but now we’re here legit.”
There was plenty of support from members of the WGA as well across picket lines including at Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Disney, despite the sweltering heat.
WGA West President Meredith Stiehm told Deadline that they were in “full solidarity” with SAG-AFRTA. “It’s very heartening and we have told [the actors] we will be there with them. It’s their turn and labor is rising, not just here, but across the country. People identify with the struggle that we are feeling squeezed. I think that’s happening to workers in all kinds of fields.”
She accused the AMPTP of being “very lackadaisical”. During negotiations with the writers, she said that the studios “did not appear to actually want to make a deal with the writers”
“This is the companies strike, not the writers or the actors, this is on the AMPTP and I think Bob Iger knows that,” she added.
Roswell, New Mexico writer Danny Tolli, who is also a WGA captain, said, “I’m thrilled to stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they join us in their strike for a fair contract.”
John August, a member of the WGA negotiating committee, said that plans for the actors to share the picket lines have been put together, as first revealed by Deadline. “We’ve had actors on the line since the very first day but it looks like tomorrow, we’ll have a bunch more actors out here. Our team has worked with their team to make sure that logistics are as good as they can be… It’s going to be a big change and so we’ll see what happens.”
The Comey Rule and Richard Jewell writer Billy Ray, who has been hosting a strike podcast for Deadline, said that the SAG-AFTRA strike is “the moment that actors saved our business. “It was heading for a cliff by strangling the very people who make it flourish. WORKERS. That had to be fixed. Now it will be,” he said.
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