Hollywood actors joining screenwriters in historic industry-stopping strike as contract talks collapse
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher speaks during a news conference announcing a strike by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Thursday in Los Angeles. Credit: AP / Invision / Chris Pizzello
Leaders of a Hollywood actors union voted Thursday to join screenwriters in the first joint strike in more than six decades, shutting down production across the entertainment industry after talks for a new contract with studios and streaming services broke down.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said at a news conference that the union leadership voted for the work stoppage hours after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.
“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” he said. Union leaders said at a news conference that they voted unanimously for a strike to begin at midnight. Outside Netflix's Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay Your Actors!” immediately after the strike was announced.
It’s the first strike for actors from film and television shows since 1980. And it’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors’ guild president.
“Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run,” former “The Nanny” star and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in an impassioned speech that drew applause from union leaders in the room. “It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history.”
With a stoppage looming, the premiere of Christopher Nolan’s film “Oppenheimer” in London was moved up an hour so that the cast could walk the red carpet before the SAG board’s announcement.
The looming strike also cast a shadow over the upcoming 75th Emmy Awards, whose nominations were announced a day earlier.
Meredith Stiehm, left, president of Writers Guild of America West, and Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, take part in a rally by striking writers outside Paramount Pictures studio in Los Angeles on May 8, 2023. Hollywood actors may be on the verge of joining screenwriters in what would be the first two-union strike in the industry in more than six decades. Credit: AP/Chris Pizzello
The AMPTP said it was disappointed in the breakdown.
“This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking A.I. proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more,” the group said in a statement.
The 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike since their own talks collapsed and their contract expired on May 2. The stoppage has showed no signs of a solution, with no negotiations even planned.
Actors and comedians Tina Fey, center, and Fred Armisen, right, join striking members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket line during a rally outside Silvercup Studios, Tuesday May 9, 2023, in New York. Unionized Hollywood actors on the verge of a strike have agreed to allow a last-minute intervention from federal mediators but say they doubt a deal will be reached by a negotiation deadline late Wednesday, July 12, 2023. Credit: AP/Bebeto Matthews
That strike brought the immediate shutdown of late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” and several scripted shows, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix,” “Hacks” on Max, and “Family Guy” on Fox, have either had their writers’ rooms or their production paused. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers have been pulled too.
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