SAG-AFTRA members support striking WGA members.Photo:Mario Tama/Getty
Mario Tama/Getty
No acting or singing or stunts. No interviews to promote movies or shows.
Now that leadership for the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced that the union will go on strike at midnight Thursday, its 160,000 members have received instructions on what is and isn’t permitted.
According to the memo, that includes “principal on camera work,” such as acting, singing, dancing, performing stunts, piloting on-camera aircraft, puppeteering and performance capture or motion capture work.
Off-camera work that is forbidden includes re-recording dialogue, voice acting, narration and stunt coordination.
Promoting new projects—including tours, personal appearances, and attendance at premieres and screenings—is also not allowed. (Even though the strike is not set to begin until midnight Thursday, thecast ofOppenheimerleft the London premiereearly after the press conference announcing the strike.) Interviews are also off the table, as well as podcast appearances and promotion on social media.
Fran Drescher and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announce the SAG-AFTRA strike.CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty
CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty
Also forbidden: awards campaigning, such as appearances at “for your consideration events,” meaning therecently-nominated Emmy contenderscannot promote their work.
The memo also clearly states that members “must not cross SAG-AFTRA picket lines,” although exceptions will be made for “non-struck work.”
Members must also “instruct their agent and/or other representatives to discontinue conducting negotiations on their behalf with the studios, streamers and networks for covered services,” according to the note.
So whatisallowed? Events like autograph signings “or things that are not related to specific companies or projects that are produced under these agreements” will be permitted, Crabtree-Ireland said at the press conference. He urged members who were unsure if something was permitted to check with leadership.
SAG-AFTRA members voted to strike after contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed.
“I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things,”Drescher said in a fiery speech at the Thursday press conference. In negotiations with the AMPTP, SAG-AFTRA has been seeking pay and residual increases, higher caps on pension and health contributions and regulating the use of artificial intelligence, among other things.
Hollywood execs “plead poverty that they’re losing money left and right while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history at this very moment. We stand in solidarity in unprecedented unity,” Drescher said.
In a statement Thursday, the AMPTP said, according toABC News, “We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations. This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more.”
“Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods. There are 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA and over 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America.”
Drescher said in a Q&A with members of the press that she was open to talks with AMPTP again as soon as that night.
This is SAG-AFTRA’s first strike in more than 40 years. They join the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May.
source: people.com
