Hollywood Facing First Shutdown in 60 Years

AFP

Los Angeles: The union representing more than 150,000 television and movie actors is on strike, joining screenwriters who walked out in May to create Hollywood’s first industrywide shutdown in 63 years.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) issued a strike order after last-ditch talks with studios on their demands over dwindling pay and the threat posed by artificial intelligence ended without a deal.

“We are all going to get into trouble if we don’t stand tall right now. This is a moment of truth and history,” stated SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, following the union board’s unanimous vote to strike.

The threat of being replaced by machines and big business will affect all of us,” Drescher added.

After their similar demands were not met, writers have spent 11 weeks protesting outside the Disney and Netflix corporate offices.

Popular television series will experience significant delays as a result of the closure of almost all projects and film sets. The schedules of movie studios have already started to change and if the strikes continue, significant movie releases may follow.

At the height of the summer blockbuster season in the film industry, a strike immediately bans performers from promoting some of the year’s greatest movies.

“We know it’s a critical time at this point in the industry and the issues that are involved need to be addressed; there are difficult conversations,” British actor Kenneth Branagh stated on the red carpet just before the strike was announced.

SAG-AFTRA represents some 160,000 actors, from A-list stars such as Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and Glenn Close to daytime players who do small roles on television series.

The last time the actors’ union went on strike, in 1980, it lasted more than three months.

This time, some 98 per cent of members voted to pre-approve industrial action if a deal was not reached. Agencies