SAG strikers lament picket line lack of talent: ‘Where’s Ben Affleck?’
By Holly Aguirre, New York Daily News
LOS ANGELES — By 9 a.m. Tuesday, hundreds of SAG/AFTRA and WGA members and supporters gathered outside the Netflix Studios on Sunset Boulevard in central Hollywood. With signs, water and sunscreen in hand, Picketer represents his 160,000 participants in the war. Screen Actors Guild on Strike Last week, he joined the Writers Guild of America.
Despite some issues, the strikers are fed up with their lack of strength. Leftovers from streaming services and threats to have their likenesses used permanently. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) No additional compensation.
Some have complained about the lack of good players in the picket line.
“I want to know where the 1% and 2% actors are,” said the SAG member, who goes by the Instagram nickname. @strikesigns.
“The WGA line has a nice sign saying ‘where is the fk’.” Ben Affleck?’ I feel that way [some of] Our actors,” she said.
George Clooney, a two-time Oscar winner and friend of Affleck’s statement of solidarityand friend Matt Damon ‘Oppenheimer’ walked off the red carpet. But for those working on the front lines, it’s not enough.
“Speaking out in a fancy air-conditioned mansion is one thing, sacrificing your body to show unity in the 90-degree heat here,” SAG member Lynn Andrews told the Daily News. “We’re all here, but we can’t pay the rent. So the least we can do is put on our running shoes and keep at it.”
SAG member @strikesigns said he makes it a habit to check SAG members’ social media posts to at least see who is participating electronically, but he’s also surprised to see who isn’t. “never seen Brie Larson Post anything. She’s part of Captain Marvel, works for Disney, and has just started one of the summer’s biggest hits, Fast X, and she usually has a very lively voice. ”
While clearly frustrated, Andrews and @strikesigns agreed that despite the no-show, the two unions’ solidarity was “uplifting.” for the first time since 1960.
actor Ben Kaufman I supported that feeling.
“Executives don’t seem to realize that actors and writers now form an unbreakable bond,” Kaufman said.
“I met a lot of people I wouldn’t have met if I hadn’t gone on strike.”
Indie filmmaker John Weiner believes the strike represents a major shift in the U.S. labor movement, but said it will take time.
“I don’t mind it going on for years because I think the whole country needs something like this,” Weiner told News. “As a matter of fact, I think everyone needs a workers’ revolution.”
Weiner called studio CEOs and executives “superb narcissists” and said their desire for control and “straight up greed” was the beginning of “this chaos.”
“Hopefully they’ll find a way to act like they’re heroes, because they won’t say, ‘Oh, I know, you’re right.’ You broke me,'” he said.
character actor Toby Huss (“White House Plumber,” “Fatal Attraction”) agreed with Weiner that studio executives knew exactly what they were doing, calling the leader “the apex predator in this capitalist system.”
Hass said he sees it as a carefully calculated way to hide profits and systematically manipulate loopholes in the system.
“This is just an existential threat,” Hass said. “Given the course of AI and its industry, using the current model, I’m not sure writing a script for a TV show, or writing a series for a streaming service, or writing a movie is any longer a viable way to actually make a living in the United States.
Hass, who paints and dabbles in photography, has no hope for a happy ending in Hollywood and believes the strike will end all strikes.
“If we don’t do something now…the big industry will just keep going,” he says. “I don’t know if the profession of acting will be viable in 10 years. Maybe it’s on stage.
“It’s ironic that right now they’re fighting to alienate writers and actors, while also looking to the future to effectively alienate their business model.”
Holly Aguirre He entered the music scene in Athens, Georgia and launched a decades-long journalism career. Her work has been published in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and the Chicago Tribune. Former New Yorker Holly lives in Los Angeles with her dogs Corky St. Clair and Peach.
https://www.dailynews.com/2023/07/19/sag-strikers-lament-lack-of-a-listers-on-picket-line/ SAG strikers lament picket line lack of talent: ‘Where’s Ben Affleck?’