“Let’s Get Back to Work”: Zac Efron, Quinta Brunson and More Celebrate the End of the Actors’ Strike

Following more than 100 days of picketing, and over a month after the end of the writers’ strike, SAG-AFTRA announced on Wednesday that it has reached a deal for a new contract with the studios, effectively ending Hollywood’s monthslong work stoppage at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 9.

In an email to members on Wednesday night, SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the new contract “will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers.” SAG-AFTRA is valuing its deal at more than $1 billion, telling members, “we have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes ‘above-pattern’ minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishes a streaming participation bonus.”

In their own statement released on Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said that the tentative agreement “represents a new paradigm” and “gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence; and sizable contract increases on items across the board. AMPTP is pleased to have reached a tentative agreement and looks forward to the industry resuming the work of telling great stories.”

Full details of the tentative agreement will be unveiled after the guild sends the terms to its national board for review on Friday, where members will have the opportunity to vote to ratify the contract.

Reactions to the news began pouring in immediately, with both Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass and governor Gavin Newsom offering statements in support. “Those on the line have been the hardest hit during this period and there have been ripple effects throughout our entire city,” Bass wrote. “Now, we must lean in on local production to ensure that our entertainment industry rebounds stronger than ever and our economy is able to get back on its feet.” Newsom said, “actors have been fighting for better wages and the health and pension benefits they deserve,” adding, “I am thankful that we can now get this iconic industry back to work, not only for our writers and actors, but also the more than two million workers who power our world-class entertainment sector.”

Actors are similarly celebrating the tentative deal. Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson learned of the strike’s end at the premiere for their upcoming movie, The Iron Claw, which earned an interim agreement for promotion from the union. “It makes me feel incredible,” Allen said once alerted to the news. “I don’t know the details of the deal but I’m sure that SAG got what we wanted, what they wanted.”