With over 100,000 participants, the 2023 Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Hollywood actor strike hit 100 days on Oct. 22 — one of the longest strikes in the union’s history. On Oct. 16, Brandeis hosted a conversation with leaders of the New England's Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Union on the Hollywood actors on strike. The event featured the New England President of SAG-AFTRA Andrea Lyman as well as the New England Vice President of SAG-AFTRA Tom Kemp. Profs. Thomas Doherty (AMST) and Dan Breen (LGLS) joined the discussion to help provide context for the current strike. 

SAG-AFTRA is the combination of two labor unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Since July 14, 116,000 actors have been on strike, 4000 of which are from New England, the branch that Lyman and Kemp head. Due to the creation of television and on-demand streaming such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, payment for an airing of a production, or residual earnings, for actors have significantly decreased. 

Furthermore, the development of artificial intelligence has led to controversial alterations of actors’ images and voice audio. While the actors may initially agree to be placed in a particular scene, through the use of Artificial Intelligence, producers manipulate the image to reuse their faces for multiple scenes without paying them for those extra scenes, since they do not qualify as working hours. According to Lyman, producers mislead actors into signing contracts that grant studios the ability to use their image indefinitely.

Prof. Doherty explained the complexity of creating a contract on AI image: “There's a tried and true doctrine, a contract law that you can't alienate your rights to your body … That's not something you could bargain away — certainly not any kind of a permanent basis,” he said.

SAG-AFTRA’s proposals included a way to monitor the usage of the AI image of actors. “In our proposal, we have set a minimum price that [the producer] would have to pay me for that per finished minute in the scene in the movie. So if that scene is two minutes long, then they would have to pay me the minute rate that we have come up with times two,” Kemp explained.

Prior to the strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered to have a discussion to possibly amend these conflicts before the strike happened, delaying its start by 12 days. Despite the promise to negotiate, both the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” movies premiered during this time, and the organization walked away from the table without considering the strikers’ proposal. A press release by AMPTP detailing SAG-AFTRA’s demands was published but did not match what the union was asking for.

Initially, SAG-AFTRA’s strike overlapped with the Writer’s Guild Strike for America lasting from May 2 to Sept. 27 this year. The writers faced a similar problem to the actors as they were not getting paid sufficiently in residuals. For instance, despite the popularity of the show “Suits” — which had a rerun on Netflix this year — the main writer earned less than $300 in residuals. The writers eventually reached a deal with their contractors while the actors were still on strike, a result attributed to the different natures of the writers’ and actors’ work. 

“We have been criticized by the press for not accepting the writers’ performance-based residual ... We've been supporting [the writers]. They’ve been supporting us, but we all realize that we're different,” Kemp said. While SAG-AFTRA covers a variety of jobs such as television stars, stunt actors, and voiceover actors, the writers’ strike focused on the top shows and thus had a different model of payment. 

The actors face challenges as they prolong their strike. There is an expanding impact on the industry that concerns more than just the actors and producers themselves which puts many workers with jobs related to the film industry out of work, as productions cannot continue without the actors. “The night of July 12, when we voted to go on strike, it was a very emotional room because we knew the impact that it would have on everybody else on the crew,” Kemp recalled. However, if producers agree to accept the conditions of the proposed SAG-AFTRA contract, strikers are permitted to work for that company. 

There is a large misconception of actors being paid well because of few highly successful Hollywood stars. Prior to the strike, this was the common perception of all Hollywood actors; the publicity after the strike has since changed that notion. In fact, the average actor is working-class, like most United States citizens. In SAG-AFTRA, one must make $26,000 a year to qualify for health insurance, and only 13% of the members qualify. “If we can increase the minimum [residual payment], we also work on contributions to our pension and health fund, which would increase if we have residuals increase,” Kemp said.

Producers are not paying actors residual earnings based on the success of the show because they claim to not know the show’s data. In Lyman’s words, when actors ask for a raise in residual earnings the producers say, “We can't afford to pay, and we wouldn't even know how much we're making, and we don't even know how many people are watching..” Nonetheless, they are able to curate some sort of ranking of popular shows on their site, such as Netflix’s “Top 10 Most Popular.”

Public opinion favors the union because of the strike’s magnitude and social media coverage. Despite the strike lasting for more than a few months, the actors have maintained morale: “We're doing something every week ... something happened that you never could have predicted, which was all these people that were in the union that were working and doing things. They're all psyched, and they're ready to get involved, and they’re ready to get other people involved,” Lyman said.

The actors and professors also discussed the historical context of the strike. In a broader context of the culture of unions around the U.S., SAG-AFTRA was formed nine years ago, encompassing diverse careers, unlike other unions, which are typically separated by workplace or warehouse. The actors explained that there has been greater awareness brought to the income disparity’s accelerating growth. It is difficult for an individual to advocate for their rights because of the power dynamics between an employer and employee. Prof. Breen highlighted the significance of having such a movement, saying, “It’s very inspiring that this can show how powerful, well-organized labor unions under the right circumstances can be. It's a shame that so many workplaces don't have that kind of presence because they're discouraged in so many ways.” 

Until the producers agree to meet with the actors again, the strikers do not plan to stop their demonstration. “We'll continue to talk every year, but it's got to be this protection, this consensus, [and] compensation, now,’” Kemp said. Producers will eventually have to come to terms with the actors as the strike continues to delay their projects, and actors are waiting for the moment the negotiations happen. Kemp added, “I don't know whether I'm going back to Los Angeles tomorrow or in 3 weeks, but I’ll eventually do it.”