Hollywood actors will go on strike after talks with studios broke down, joining film and television writers who have been on picket lines since May and deepening the disruption of scores of shows and movies.
Hollywood studios now face their first dual work stoppage in 63 years, forcing them to halt many productions across the United States and abroad.
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The twin strikes will add to the economic damage from the writers’ walkout, delivering another blow to an industry struggling with changes to its business.
Both the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), Hollywood’s largest union, representing 160,000 film and television actors, and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
The actors’ union announced at a Thursday press conference that the strike will begin at midnight after its national board voted unanimously to authorise the walkout.
A deadline to reach a new contract expired on Wednesday.
Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny TV show and the president of SAG-AFTRA, called the studios’ responses to actors’ concerns “insulting and disrespectful”.
“I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us,” Drescher said at the press conference at the SAG-AFTRA headquarters.
“I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things, how they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that negotiates on behalf of Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co and other production companies, said it was “deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations”.
The group said it had offered “historic pay and residual increases” and “a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses”.
Actors are worried that their digital images will be used without their permission or proper compensation.
“Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods