Vigil of arms in Hollywood as actors threaten to join striking screenwriters

Nothing is going right in Hollywood anymore. After the failure of negotiations between the major American studios and the powerful actors' union, which denounced "insulting" salary proposals, the threat of a generalization of the social conflict is becoming more and more significant.

“After more than four weeks of negotiations”, the previous agreement expired Wednesday evening at midnight without any hope of conciliation, noted the union SAG-AFTRA, main representative of the American actors. Its positions are far too far removed from that of the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), which brings together historic film groups like Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros Discovery and Sony, and digital platforms like Netflix. , Amazon or Apple.

“The AMPTP's responses to the union's most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our vital contribution to this industry. Employers have refused to get meaningfully involved on some issues and on others have completely ignored us,” the union, which represents 160,000 actors and other professionals on the small and big screen, wrote in a statement released Thursday. . The union office must ratify the start of the strike on Thursday. If they launched this movement, the actors would then join the screenwriters, who have ceased work since the beginning of May. This double social movement bringing together the faces and feathers of the film industry will be a first since 1960 in Hollywood.

The two trades are demanding an increase in their remuneration, at half mast in the era of streaming. They also want guarantees regarding the use of artificial intelligence, to prevent AI from generating scripts, or cloning their voice and image. The actors going on strike would be a blow for the bosses of the studios and streaming platforms. Since May, the only productions that have decided to shoot do so on the basis of scripts already completed in the spring, without being able to modify them. This is particularly the case for the Amazon-funded Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power. But, without actors, filming would simply not be possible. Only a few talk shows and reality TV shows could continue.

The actors also have the power to seriously handicap the promotion of this summer's blockbusters, such as Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated Oppenheimer, whose London premiere on Thursday will be brought forward an hour to allow its cast to hold interviews before the beginning of a possible strike. The absence of comedians on the red carpets would leave a big void in California. Comic-Con, the high mass of American geeks and comic book lovers, should take place without stars from July 20 in San Diego.

Ahead of the strike, Disney explained that the launch of its new movie, The Haunted Mansion, would be reduced to a "private event" for fans over the weekend in the event of a civil unrest. Even the Emmy Awards ceremony, equivalent to the Oscars for TV, scheduled for September 18, is threatened. The production is already considering postponing the event to November, or even to 2024, according to the American press. Because no one knows how long the movement could last. Actors have not gone on strike since 1980. The last writers' strike, which dates back to 2007-2008, lasted 100 days and cost the sector two billion dollars.

A double strike would confirm the existential crisis currently affecting Hollywood. In late June, hundreds of famous actors, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Stiller, signed a letter saying their industry is at an "unprecedented inflection point." For about ten years, the advent of streaming has upset the “residual” remuneration of actors and screenwriters, resulting from each rerun of a film or series.

Interesting with television because calculated according to the price of advertisements, these emoluments are much lower with streaming platforms, which do not communicate their audience figures and pay a flat rate, regardless of success. Without this essential income to absorb the periods of inactivity between two productions, the many workers who do not have the status of actor or star author denounce a precariousness of their profession. The rapid development of artificial intelligence, which threatens to replace them, only adds fuel to the fire. Disney, for example, used AI to produce the credits for its new series launched in June, Secret Invasion.