SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) has recommended a strike following negotiations between the union of actors and actresses in major Hollywood studios and swimmers, which AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Represents it). ). Actors will now join writers on the picket line, marking the first time since the 1960s that two union leaders have gone to work at the same time. The author's work began on May 2 and is in its 10th week. In addition to Rae, a number of other stars have spoken out following the announcement, including Josh Gad, Olivia Wilde, Rosie O'Donnell, Margaret Cho, Jamie Lynn Spears, Mandy Moore, Amber Tamblyn, Riley Keough and Kaley Cuoco, who posted a message of support for SAG on social media. It has been over 60 years since the actors and screenwriters once again inspired film and television. The decision came a few hours after contract negotiations with companies including Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and Warner Bros failed to reach midnight on Wednesday, July 12. The interim union's requirements are similar to those of its counterpart, the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Among the main demands of the former are higher wages, more income, and better working conditions.
"Well, everything is f**ked," Issa Rae declared on her Instagram Story moments after it was announced that SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) And Just Like That star Cynthia Nixon posted to her Instagram Story, "The @sagaftra strike has at last arrived. I am proud to be standing with the @WGAWest and @WGAEast as actors and writers together demand a fair share of the record-breaking profits the studios have been reaping from our labor for far too long. We will win this!" Jamie Lee Curtis also posted about the strike along with some facial expressions taken while she was guest starring on FX's The Bear. "The @sagaftra symbol used to be the masks of the actor's face. REPRESENTING the EXPRESSIONS. The EMOTIONS. The FEELINGS generated by the WORDS of their UNION MEMBERS! Union contracts PROTECT our SAFETY and EXPLOITATION! We are UNION STRONG!" the Oscar winner wrote on Instagram.
Meanwhile, at the U.K. premiere of Oppenheimer on Thursday, director Christopher Nolan revealed that the cast, including stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and others, left the event to go "write their picket signs" for the strike. "Unfortunately, they're off to write their picket signs for what I believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of the union," said Nolan, before receiving applause from the crowd. Earlier at the premiere, Blunt told Deadline that she and her cast members planned to leave the event the moment the strike was announced. "We’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone," the actress said. "We are gonna have to."
On Thursday, Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA president, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director/chief negotiator, announced the strike at a press conference "It’s really important that this negotiation be covered because the eyes of the world -- particularly, the eyes of labor -- are upon us. What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor," Drescher said in a passionate speech, calling this "a very seminal hour for us." "I went in earnest, thinking that we would be able to avert a strike," the actress, best known for her role in The Nanny, continued. "The gravity of this move is not lost on me or our negotiating committee or our board members who have voted unanimously to proceed with a strike. It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not millions of people, all across this country and around the world. Not only members of this union but people who work in other industries that service the people who work in this industry."