The American actors' union SAG–AFTRA went on strike over an ongoing labor dispute. This is the first time that actors have initiated a labor dispute in the since 1980 and the first time that actors and writers have walked out simultaneously since 1960.
Now, you may be asking yourself, how what does this all mean? At first, many believed it was just about the money and it does. However, that isn't all. This strike is much bigger than money and we all should have seen this coming when the industry shifted to streaming.
Most people assume all actors make a lot of money, or at least enough to get by. Well, that is not the case for almost all actors. Many of them have to have multiple side jobs just to keep the lights on and put food on the table. In addition to this, they do not have proper healthcare.
Thousands of actors have turned to social media to discuss their stories on how they are not making a decent living wage and how the old contract does not stand up to the times. One actor from Orange is the New Black showed her earnings (if you can call it that) from reruns/rebroadcasting, which was under $30! We all remember how popular that show was and there is no way one of the top actors should have been paid so little for that. In addition to this, many actors on that show claimed they had to keep bartending jobs just to make ends meet.
Another major issue that came to light was that studios wanted to pay extras $200 for the rights to use their likenesses... forever. This means the studios would recreate those background actors using generative AI whenever they wanted, instead of rehiring them. The likenesses would be input by scanning the actors' faces and bodies and that means the studios wouldn't have to pay them a dime.
Fran Drescher announced the strike and did not hide her frustration and anger at how the negotiations went.
Below you will find screenshots from social media pertaining to the issues and I will be posting as more comes down the pipeline. This likely means that SDCC will be very light in regards to interviews, but I will still post lots from the convention. I will be sad not to see familiar celebrity faces this year, but they deserve better and we should support them. This will likely bring SDCC back to its roots and we can all have fun supporting artists who will be there.
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