Hollywood actors reach tentative deal with studios to end strike
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The SAG-Aftra work stoppage left many productions dark.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – Hollywood actors reached a tentative agreement
The 118-day work stoppage will end officially just after midnight on Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-Aftra) union said in a statement after its negotiating committee voted unanimously to support the deal.
The group’s national board will consider the agreement on Friday, and the union said it would release further details after that meeting.
Members of SAG-Aftra walked off the job in mid-July asking for an increase in minimum salaries, a share of streaming service revenue and protection from being replaced by “digital replicas” generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
The union’s negotiators reached the preliminary deal on a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Walt Disney, Netflix and other media companies.
An AMPTP representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The breakthrough means Hollywood can ramp up to full production for the first time since May, once union members vote to ratify the deal in the coming weeks.
“I’m relieved,” actress Fanny Grande said in an interview. “It’s been really difficult for most people in the industry, especially people of colour. As it is, we don’t have as many opportunities. We aren’t big celebrities that have money in the bank for months. I just really hope that it’s a fair deal.”
Actress Jessica Payne said she felt “deeply grateful, cautiously optimistic and ready to work”.
Word of a potential agreement had spread across Hollywood earlier on Wednesday, raising hopes among actors who had spent weeks picketing outside studio offices in New York and Los Angeles instead of on sets.
“Preliminary chatter was that a vote was imminent,” said Rati Gupta, best known as Anu in CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory (2007 to 2019). “Hearts have been pounding for several hours today.”
Actors had similar concerns to film and TV writers, who argued that compensation for working-class cast members had dwindled as streaming took hold, making it hard to earn a living wage in cities such as Los Angeles and New York. TV series on streaming did not offer the same residual payments that actors enjoyed during the heyday of broadcast TV.
Performers also became alarmed by recent advances in AI, which they feared could lead to studios manipulating their likenesses without permission or replacing human actors with digital images.
George Clooney and other A-list stars voiced solidarity with lower-level actors and had urged union leadership, including SAG-Aftra president and The Nanny (1993 to 1999) actress Fran Drescher, to reach a resolution.
Many film and TV sets shut down when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike in May. While WGA members returned to writing scripts in late September, the SAG-Aftra work stoppage left many productions dark.
The disruptions cost California more than US$6 billion (S$8.1 billion) in lost output, according to a Milken Institute estimate.
SAG-Aftra members and supporters picketing outside Netflix studios on day 118 of their strike against the Hollywood studios on Nov 8 in Los Angeles.
PHOTO: AFP
With little work available, many prop masters, costume designers and other crew members struggled to make ends meet. FilmLA, the group that approves filming permits, reported that scripted production during the week of Oct 29 had fallen 77 per cent from the same time a year earlier.
The Hollywood strikes came during a year of other high-profile job actions. The United Auto Workers recently ended six weeks of walkouts at Detroit carmakers. also walked off the job.
Hollywood’s work stoppages forced broadcast networks to fill their autumn line-ups with reruns, game shows and reality shows. It also led movie studios to delay big releases such as Dune: Part 2 because striking actors could not promote them.
Other major films, including the latest instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise (1996 to present) and Disney’s live-action remake of animated classic Snow White, were postponed until 2025. REUTERS
