Hollywood fait face à une double grève des scénaristes et des acteurs.

Hollywood on hiatus. After the screenwriters, who engaged in a showdown with the studios two months ago, it is now the actors who have launched a strike movement this Thursday. The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA officially announced the mobilization at a press conference in Los Angeles at midday, which will officially begin this Friday at 12:01 am, with protests planned in front of major Hollywood studios.

The studios “plead poverty, claim they are losing money while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs, it’s a shame,” said the president of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, Fran Drescher, the star of the sitcom “The Nanny” from the 1990s. “If we don’t resist now, we all risk being replaced by machines, big companies care more about Wall Street than about you and your families.”

Fear of generative AI

Negotiations to increase wages have failed, particularly regarding residual rights for streaming. Disney CEO Bob Iger, who has signed a contract until 2026 and will earn $27 million per year, accused the union negotiators of “not being realistic.”

The union also demands regulation of artificial intelligence to prevent studios from exploiting the voice or image of actors through “generative” AIs. Although we are not yet in the dystopian nightmare imagined by the series Black Mirror in the episode Joan is Horrible, technology is advancing rapidly, and dubbing actors are already threatened.

Support from the stars

This is the first time since 1960 that Hollywood is facing a double strike by screenwriters and actors. This showdown will delay the studios’ schedule for films and series that were not yet finished shooting, but it will also disrupt the promotion of summer blockbusters like Barbie or Oppenheimer.

In London, Christopher Nolan announced at the end of the screening on Thursday evening that the actors had just left “to write their strike signs.” Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy, as well as Margot Robbie, have all expressed their support for the movement, along with Daniel Radcliffe and Jamie Lee Curtis. In Hollywood, the final battle has begun.

BP