Why are Hollywood actors and writers on strike?

HOLLYWOOD – Actors and writers will join forces on the picket line from Friday, after studios failed to reach a deal this week with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). It is the first time the two unions have been on strike simultaneously since 1960, when actor – and future US president – Ronald Reagan led the protests. Among SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000-strong ranks are many of the world’s biggest stars. Hollywood’s A-listers, from Tom Cruise to Angelina Jolie to Johnny Depp, are card-carrying union members. Stars including Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller and Colin Farrell have come out publicly in favour of the strike.

The industry-wide shutdown follows a row about pay and the impact of artificial intelligence with film studios and streaming services. The two unions failed to reach an agreement on a fairer split of profits and increased safeguarding around Artificial Intelligence (AI) rights. The unions are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation, residual payments in the streaming era and putting up guardrails against the use of AI mimicking their work on film and television shows.

The strikes impacts Hollywood productions, like movies and shows have already slowed down significantly since the writers’ strike began in early May. Shows with finished scripts, such as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, were able to continue filming this summer, though without any writers on set. But without actors, the only US-based productions that can continue are a handful of soap operas which have a different contract and reality and game shows.

For this reason, Fox this week unveiled a fall television schedule full of unscripted series such as Kitchen Nightmares and Lego Masters. Movie releases are less immediately affected because of the long lag between the end of filming and the start of screening in theatres.