Hollywood stands still – everything you need to know about the actors’ strike

The screenwriters have been on strike for three months. This strike is costing the studios $30 million a day. Now the actors have joined the strike and have stopped working. During the negotiations with the association of TV and film studios AMPTP, no agreement could be reached on new contracts.

Here you will find an overview of which films are involved, what the actors no longer do and how the film industry is moving forward.

“Making a living as a professional actor is becoming increasingly difficult as both inflation and the streaming ecosystem undermine compensation – while corporate profits and studio executive pay continue to soar,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. For example, stars in series that run on a streaming service earn less money than when reruns are shown on TV. The unregulated use of AI is also a danger to actors, as they can easily be replaced by digital characters.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said she was “appalled” by the way studio bosses treat actors. “I honestly can’t believe how far apart we are in so many things. It’s disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself. You’re on the wrong side of history.”

She added that actresses can no longer be marginalized, disrespected and dishonored by a streaming-transformed business model.

“It’s only a small percentage of female actors and performers who make millions of dollars,” Matthew A. Cherry, creator of the animated film “Hair Love” and former NFL player, wrote on Twitter. And further: “Most actors have multiple jobs and live from paycheck to paycheck, as in other industries”.

Specifically, it concerns the following two points:

Numerous actors and actresses expressed their support for the strike after the announcement. “We’re going to win this,” “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon wrote on Twitter. Cast members including Josh Gad, Jamie Lee Curtis and Issa Rae also took to social media to show their support. The actors in the “Oppenheimer” film, including Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, left a premiere in London on Thursday after appearing on the red carpet in solidarity with the strike.

“The Boys” star Jack Quaid also called for a strike on Twitter:

About 160,000 culture workers are members of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA. 65,000 took part in the vote on whether or not to strike. More than 97 percent voted for the strike. This is now binding for all actors. Other members such as stuntmen, TV journalists and presenters are exempt from the strike.

All ongoing productions in the American film industry will be halted with immediate effect. These include films such as Gladiator 2, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two and Deadpool 3. Many film and series productions have already been put on indefinite hiatus due to the screenwriters’ strike.

An exception is “House of the Dragon”, which is currently in its second season. Despite being an American series, the cast is mainly British who are not members of SAG-AFTRA but have stock contracts. The HBO series Industry is also operating under equity rules, and Variety reports that both series are progressing according to plan.

For low-budget films and independent films, the situation is more complicated. They may be able to apply for an exemption from SAG-AFTRA to continue working, The Guardian reports.

With few exceptions, all filming with actors in front of the camera should be stopped. This includes:

The association of TV and film studios AMPTP – which represents Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Disney, among others – defended itself. An attempt has been made to reach an agreement, the statement said. The union has now “unfortunately sought a way that will lead to financial hardship for the countless thousands of people who depend on the industry”.

Disney CEO Bob Iger also responded to the strike. He told CNBC that the demands and expectations of the striking cultural workers are unrealistic.

“We have talked about disruptive factors in this business and all the challenges we are facing, the recovery from COVID which is still ongoing is not fully complete. This is the worst time in the world to exacerbate this disruption,” he said while attending the Sun Valley Conference, also known as “Billionaires’ Summer Camp.”

It’s the first actors’ strike since 1980. And it’s the first time two major Hollywood unions have gone on strike at the same time since the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Actors’ Union. This was the first industry-wide strike in the 50-year history of film production. As with the current strike, it was about actors’ participation in the studios’ profits. They also argued for a pension and social fund.

It is not certain how long the strike will last. Streaming services and movie studios currently have no hope of completing production until both strikes are over. It is incalculable how big the losses of the studios are.

In addition to the studios, countless events are also affected by the strike. For example, the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con, which will take place July 20-23. Most major studios have already announced that they will not be represented in the exhibition center as usual due to the writers’ strike. Without the presence of actors, all hopes of the TV panels, popular with fans, are gone.

The Emmy season is also about to turn into chaos. Actually, the Emmys were supposed to take place in June, but were postponed to September 18. The nominations were announced on Wednesday, just hours before the strike began. The first phase of the voting was already difficult to coordinate because the writers’ strike prevented the involvement of writers and showrunners, and now the second phase is becoming a complete nightmare for the advertising teams, who also cannot use actors, writes Variety.

The major international film festivals – including Venice and Toronto, which run almost simultaneously in late August and early September – should be able to screen the available films, but the actors’ performances have yet to be seen.

(With material from the SDA.)