Hollywood actors are going on strike

SAG-AFTRA has officially announced that its actors are going on strike.

The SAG-AFTRA national board held a meeting on Thursday and voted unanimously to go on strike, joining the picket line with the already striking WGA. The union’s contract expired Wednesday at midnight.

“Union members should withhold their labor until a fair contract can be achieved,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, during a press conference. “They have left us with no alternative.”

With increasing (and unproductive) discussions with Hollywood studios over residual payments, increased pay, and AI usage, a strike was imminent.

“We are being victimized by a very greedy enterprise,” continued SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. “At some point you have to say ‘No, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?'”

Continued Drescher: “If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in jeopardy. You cannot change the business model as much as it has been changed and not expect the contract to change too. I cannot believe … how [the studios] plead poverty, that they are losing money left and right, when they give $100 millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”

“A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement after the strike was confirmed. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”

The AMPTP argues that it presented SAG-AFTRA with a deal that includes residual increases and a “groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likeness,” among other things (H/T Variety.)

For more, check out our explainer on what the SAG-AFTRA strike might mean for your favorite shows and movies.