The union, which represents the interests of some 160,000 Hollywood actors, announced the first strike since 1980. The reason for this decision was negotiations with the largest studios and streaming services, which failed. CNN reports it.
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in a statement that the studio management’s proposals were “offensive and disrespectful.” After that, 98% of union members voted to allow the strike.
Actors can no longer act in movies or TV shows, promote movies or TV shows, including interviews with journalists, attend movie or TV show premieres, and promote movies or TV shows at Comic-Con. The two main demands of the actors are higher salaries and protection against unauthorized use of their images using artificial intelligence (AI).
“Companies have abandoned constructive interaction on some issues and have reached a dead end on others. Until they begin to negotiate in good faith, we will not be able to reach an agreement. We have no choice but to come together and on behalf of our members to make a strike recommendation to the National Council,” Drescher said.
CNN writes that it is now feared that the outages could last until the end of the summer or even the end of the year. The actors’ strike is expected to halt most filming, with the exception of a few independent films not affiliated with major studios.
Earlier, the third season of “Loto Blanco” was postponed due to the strike. Actor Tom Hollander spoke about this on The News Agents podcast. We talk about it in more detail here.
