Union leadership representing film and television actors voted to go on strike beginning Friday after negotiations with Hollywood studios and streaming services failed to produce a deal.
“We are the victims here,” said Fran Drescher, the former “Nanny” star who is now president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, at a news conference Thursday. “We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us.”
Actors will join members of the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since early May, essentially bringing all Hollywood production to a halt.
This is the first time SAG-AFTRA members have gone on strike since 1980, and the first time both major Hollywood unions have walked the picket lines together since 1960.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of SAG-AFTRA, said union leadership voted for the work stoppage hours after their contract expired and talks broke off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers representing employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others.
“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” Crabtree-Ireland said.
Issues include the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and the effects on residual pay brought on by the streaming ecosystem that has emerged in recent years.
“I cannot believe it … how far apart we are on so many things,” Drescher said. “How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”
In a statement released just as the strike was announced, AMPTP says it had offered a generous deal with “historic” pay and residual increases, and higher caps on pension and health contributions, among other concessions.
“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 said. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of
people who depend on the industry.”
Outside Netflix’s Hollywood offices, picketing screenwriters chanted “Pay your actors!” immediately after the strike was announced.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.