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.”
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The union representing film and television actors has struck a tentative deal with entertainment industry studios on a new labor contract, SAG-AFTRA announced Wednesday, moving the sides closer to ending what has been a contentious nearly four-month strike.
“In a unanimous vote this afternoon, the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP bringing an end to the 118 day strike,” the union said Wednesday in a statement. While the new contract must still be ratified by SAG-AFTRA membership, the union announced the strike will end Thursday at 12:01 a.m.
The full details of the agreement were not immediately made available.
In a letter to members, SAG-AFTRA said the deal “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.” The union also said it had secured increases to its pension and health caps and “outsize compensation increases for background performers.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers made what the group described as its “last, best and final offer” to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Saturday.
SAG-AFTRA, which represents roughly 160,000 performers, said on social media on Monday that it was pushing to “bring this strike to an end responsibly,” while noting that negotiators remained at odds on key issues, including the studios’ use of artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP is a trade association that represents movie and TV producers, including Apple, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers Discovery (Some CBS News staff are SAG-AFTRA members, but they work under a different contract than the actors and are not affected by the strike.)
The AMPTP said in a statement that Wednesday’s deal “represents a new paradigm” that “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.”
The film and TV work stoppage — the longest in SAG’s history — has halted film and scripted TV production, delaying major movie releases and causing financial hardship for thousands of working actors.
“I am grateful that a fair agreement has been reached between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP after a more than 100 day strike that impacted millions in Los Angeles and throughout the country,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Wednesday.
“Today’s tentative agreement is going to impact nearly every part of our economy. 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,” Bass added.
Sticking points in the often bitter negotiations included actors seeking limitations on studios using AI to re-create actors’ likenesses and performances, updated compensation structures to reflect the growth of streaming, and enhanced health and retirement benefits.
Specifically, actors pushed for more lucrative residual payments for their work in streaming shows, saying their income has plunged even as studio revenues from online video have soared.
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace issues, the business of health care and personal finance. She regularly appears on CBS News streaming to discuss her reporting.
SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). If ratified, the new contract would end the actors union’s historic 118-day strike.
On Nov. 8, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav expressed optimism that the strike would end soon on their companies’ respective earnings calls. Later that day, the two parties finally reached a tentative agreement, causing wide celebration throughout the business as SAG-AFTRA members wait to vote on and likely ratify their new contract.
“Woo hooo!!!! Let’s hope the deal is fair and we can get back to work!” wrote Daniel Dae Kim on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Say what???? YAY!!! The strike is over!!!!! @sagaftra” posted Rosie Perez.
“Union strong,” wrote Dani Fernandez. “Being both WGA and SAG I have been on strike since May 2nd. Good lord. Thank you to everyone who had our back. Thank you to all my sister unions for joining the lines. Thank you to our strike captains, neg com, and pre guild folks who showed up. Strikes work.”
Union strong. Being both WGA and SAG I have been on strike since May 2nd. Good lord. Thank you to everyone who had our back. Thank you to all my sister unions for joining the lines. Thank you to our strike captains, neg com, and pre guild folks who showed up. Strikes work ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Along with the deal itself, the fact that actors will now be allowed to publicly discuss their projects again has created cause for celebration.
“YES!!! Hallelujah. I can tweet a certain trailer that I am VERY EXCITED ABOUT at midnight,” posted Kumail Nanjiani on X, formerly known as Twitter. He is most likely referring to “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” for which a trailer was released on Wednesday.
“I can finally say it: watch my documentary Saturday night at 8 on HBO/MAX!” wrote Albert Brooks on X, formerly known as Twitter, about his film “Defending My Life.” “I can finally say it: watch my documentary Saturday night at 8 on HBO/MAX! I can’t wait for you to see it! Couldn’t say a word until now!!”
The SAG strike is over!! I can finally say it: watch my documentary Saturday night at 8 on HBO/MAX! I can’t wait for you to see it! Couldn’t say a word until now!!https://t.co/SxOPJmSrfD
The Directors Guild of America shared a statement, saying, “Congratulations to SAG-AFTRA on successfully reaching a tentative agreement that addresses the unique needs of their members. Directors and their teams look forward to our industry getting back to work and collaborating with actors, writers, craftspeople and crews to create film and television that entertains billions around the world.”
The Producers Guild of America also weighed in. “The Producers Guild of America congratulates SAG-AFTRA for their unwavering dedication in reaching an agreement with the studios,” the union said. “We eagerly look forward to collaborating with our fellow writers, actors and directors as we collectively work towards revitalizing our industry and returning to work.”
See more reactions to the end of the actors’ strike below.
After 118 days, white smoke is finally emitting from the SAG-AFTRA building signifying the AMPTP and SAG/AFTRA have reached a tentative agreement! pic.twitter.com/fmFjQ3MGPN
After 118 days on the picket lines, the guild that represents actors says it has reached a tentative agreement for a new contract, signaling the end of the paralysis that has plagued Hollywood for months. On Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced that it had unanimously voted to approve a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and would officially end the strike at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 9.
Actors returning to work means that production can resume, revving up the content machines that have been dormant for nearly six months. The actors began striking on July 14th, joining the Writers Guild of America, which was already more than two months into its own strike. SAG-AFTRA could not come to an agreement with AMPTP at the time over key issues such as increased compensation, streaming residuals, and AI, leading to rhetoric that grew increasingly polarized during the spring and summer.
“There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said of the writers and actors just one day after the studios’ talks with SAG-AFTRA broke down. “They are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher had a different view, saying on the first day of the strike, “We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.” She argued that the studios and streamers represented by the AMPTP pled poverty in negotiations while “giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them. They stand on the wrong side of history, at this very moment.”
The actors strike elevated Drescher into a new type of public role, that of a labor leader. Though she got flack for flying to Italy for a Dolce & Gabbana promotional event just days before the SAG-AFTRA contract was set to expire, the actor previously best known for playing The Nanny approached her new position with such passion that even Saturday Night Live couldn’t pass up spoofing her in a recent sketch. Meanwhile, Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and some of their fellow CEOs found themselves cast in the villain role over the summer, as picketers brandished signs admonishing the studio bosses.
The dual strikes wreaked devastation across the entertainment industry—shutting down productions, bumping awards shows, forcing studios to postpone blockbusters rather than releasing projects without actors to promote them, and putting thousands of crew members out of work. It was the first time both unions had been on strike since 1960, and the shock waves rippled out beyond Hollywood. The production shutdown has cost the California economy an estimated $5 billion.
When the writers strike ended September 24, many in the industry assumed the actors would soon follow. SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP restarted talks on October 2—with top executives like Iger and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in the room—only to quickly hit a wall. On October 11, the AMPTP issued a statement that “conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.” Sarandos himself told a crowd of Hollywood professionals at the Bloomberg Screentime conference that one of SAG-AFTRA’s proposals—that the streamers pay a set rate per subscriber as a sort of bonus for actors—was “a bridge too far.” SAG-AFTRA leaders disputed the AMPTP’s characterization of the payment as a “levy” on streamers.
Talks resumed in a more intensive way on October 24 against a backdrop of an increasingly panicked Hollywood. “This year is over,” one film and television producer toldVanity Fair earlier this month. A top talent agent was already concerned about 2024: “The way to save the year is by getting the strike resolved before year’s end, because that’ll protect next year to some extent.” Some of the most famous members of SAG-AFTRA—among them George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, and Tyler Perry—reportedly held Zoom meetings with guild leaders to discuss a path to resuming the talks. A group of boldface names even offered to remove the $1 million cap on dues to help pay those lower on the call sheet, a proposal that Drescher later explained would violate federal labor regulations.
After talks resumed, hundreds of SAG-AFTRA members including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Walter Hauser, Timothy Olyphant, and Maya Hawke signed an open letter addressed to the negotiating committee, telling them, “we would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal.”
The talks appeared to pick up steam toward the end of October, and negotiators spent the better part of the pre-Halloween weekend working behind closed doors. On Sunday evening, SAG-AFTRA tweeted that they had “discussed all open proposals, including AI, with the AMPTP,” and asked members to “flood picket lines” to make their voices heard. But talks continued to stretch on as the two sides remained at odds over key issues, particularly around how to protect actors against the use of AI. On Tuesday evening, SAG-AFTRA said that it had sent 10 hours deliberating that day and thanked its members for “your patience and support while we finish our work.”
Tyler Perry joined the “CBS Mornings” hosts in the studio on Tuesday to talk about “Maxine’s Baby,” a new documentary his long-time partner Gelila Bekele made about his life.
Perry said that he had no creative control over the documentary, which was an unusual position for the actor, producer, director and media mogul. He said that cameras followed him for 10 years to make the film.
“It’s not a story that I’m telling … It’s my life,” Perry said, adding that he hopes his struggles and triumphs displayed in the film will inspire others. “If that happens, then it was all worth it for me.”
The documentary is named for Perry’s mother, Maxine, who passed away in 2009 after a long illness. Perry said that it was Maxine who inspired him to become the multi-hyphenate star that he is known as today.
“Everything I did was about her. All the work was about her. I was never after money. It was always about making enough money to take care of her, to buy her medicine, to make sure we were never in poverty again,” Perry said. “No matter how much I had, it was never enough.”
When his mother died, Perry said “all of that was gone” and the fight to regain his motivation was slow.
“It was like a car that ran on gasoline all of a sudden say, ‘Now you need diesel,’” Perry said. “Now, my motivation has become watching all of the people who are coming into the studios, young, Black, everybody represented who has never gotten a chance in this business – that gives me the inspiration to keep going.”
Perry was referencing the self-named Tyler Perry Studios, a film production studio built on 330 acres of land in Atlanta. It’s the largest film complex in the country, according to previous CBS News reporting, and Perry is the first Black person to independently own a major film studio.
Because of his role as a studio owner and operator, and having been an actor, Perry has a unique perspective on the ongoing SAG-AFTRA actors’ strikes. Perry closed his studios to stand in solidarity with the unions, he said, and now holds food drives and fundraisers at the site. But he said it had been “debilitating” not to not work for so long.
“As we’re looking at all of this and as we’re negotiating, it is so important that [SAG-AFTRA president] Fran Drescher, [SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator] Duncan Ireland, the whole negotiating committee have done a fantastic job moving this forward … but it’s really important to know when we’ve won. This is only a three-year deal. In two years, two-and-a-half years, we’ll be renegotiating again,” Perry said. “So we have to know what have we won, and what have we won for now? That’s the thing. For now. … If I had ran my business trying to get everything at once, I wouldn’t be here. I’ve got as much as I can for now, so let’s see what we can do next.”
2nd UPDATE, 10:29 PM– EXCLUSIVE: The actors union and the studios have finally called it a night on their latest talks in search of a new three-year contract.
In the last 30 minutes or so, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP ended a long bargaining session that started this afternoon. The thinking is they will resume negotiations on the 117th day of the strike — tomorrow, November 7. However, at this later hour, no definite time has been set yet for when they will meet again.
Tonight’s meeting was a virtual get together the CEO Gang of Four with joining AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini and SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, among others. Netflix‘s Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Disney’s Bob Iger have all been participating in talks directly on and off since the lasted negotiations began on October 24.
“This was a productive session, some work still required before there’s a deal,” a studio insider told Deadline tonight of the gathering that followed the guild’s response to the studios’ so-called “best, last and final offer” last week “There’s still some serious daylight between us, at least as of right now,” he added.
David Zaslav, Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley & Bob Iger
Getty
As has been the case for months, AI remains one of the major issues that divides the guild and the studios. The latter are looking to seal the deal with what one source called “an expanded version of what the WGA agreed to.” The former want project specific protections on scans of performers and re-use of their likenesses. Well-positioned sources on both sides admit that part of the problem they are having is coming up with effective guardrails for a technology that is evolving in leaps and bounds.
1st UPDATE, 4:20 PM: As the back and forth between SAG-AFTRA and the studios continues Monday, an end to the 116-day actors strike may not be imminent.
“There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI,” the guild said in a letter to members in the last hour. “We will keep you informed as events unfold.”
Here’s the full letter:
Dear Member,
This morning our negotiators formally responded to the AMPTP’s “Last, Best & Final” offer.
Please know every member of our TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee is determined to secure the right deal and thereby bring this strike to an end responsibly.
There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI. We will keep you informed as events unfold.
In solidarity and gratitude,
Your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee
The letter follows the guild delivering their response to the studios’ “last, best & final” offer on a new TV and movie contract earlier in the day. As Deadline reported, the parties are scheduling new negotiations which could begin as soon as this evening.
AI has been one of the primary sticking points between the sides since the beginning of their initial talks in June. Since that time, the technology has evolved so rapidly that there are questions on both sides as to how many protections could actually be put into a new three-year deal.
“It’s not bulletproof, everyone has to recognize that,” a studio executive told Deadline today about any potential AI agreement. With IATSE and Teamsters negotiations coming next year, the exec noted that it’s just a matter of months before studios will be back in deliberations with the likes of the DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA on the next three-year contract.
PREVIOUSLY, 2:38 PM: EXCLUSIVE: A deal may not be in the cards tonight, but SAG-AFTRA and the studios could be heading back to negotiations within hours.
The two sides are hoping to speak virtually later today and perhaps into the night, we hear.
As of right now, no meetings have been formally set, according to a guild source, but they are expecting to lock in a time “very soon.”
It is unclear at present whether the CEO Gang of Four — NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — will be participating in these new talks, which are said to include guild Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini.
That response was “measured,” as a guild member close to talks tells us on this 116th day of the SAG-AFTRA strike. The guild spent most of the weekend “reviewing” the hundreds of pages of the proposal from the studios — a proposal that is a response to SAG-AFTRA’s “comprehensive counter” of late October.
“Everybody knows where everybody stands,” a studio insider told Deadline this afternoon. “Now, it’s about bringing it home, if we can,” he added with some optimism. Despite the ominous tone of the studios’ most recent offer, the tactic never truly excluded having talks between both sides continue into this week.
With “a lot to digest” for the SAG-AFTRA in the studio’s offer, according to one source, details reportedly include the highest wage increases for actors in 40 years. Additionally, there was a 100% uptick in performance compensation bonuses for high-budget streaming series and films in the AMPTP package, which a boatload of CEOs got on a brief Zoom call on November 4 to brief guild brass. Perhaps the crown jewel in the studios’ package is what have been called “full” AI protections. Put together, along with health and pension fund contributions and more, the execs feel their offer went “a long way to what SAG wanted,” per an industry source over the weekend.
Or, as Netflix’s co-CEO Sarandos told SAG-AFTRA leaders on Saturday, “We didn’t just come toward you, we came all the way to you.” If execs thought that was going to get them across the line by now, clearly they were disappointed. One insider on the studio side, expecting a deal Sunday night, informed us they had to pull the plug on a scheduled production that was getting ramped up today.
You’ll remember that it’s tricky for TV and feature productions to shoot, even though the writers strike has ended. SAG-AFTRA pickets were out in full force, shutting down a B-roll shoot with extras of Netflix’s Nicole Kidman limited series The Perfect Couple in Nantucket on September 28. It doesn’t matter where Hollywood is shooting; the guild will keep them in check. The problem with The Perfect Couple was that it was using non-guild members as extras on camera, which was a big no-no for local union actors in Massachusetts.
The combination of the now-resolved WGA strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike is estimated to have cost the California economy over $6.5 billion so far. With guild members united but feeling the financial squeeze, another fallout aspect of the nearly total shutdown of production has been the loss of 45,000 entertainment industry jobs.
If a new deal is reached, the turnaround on how fast actors can go back to work and promote new TV series and films remains in question. Given the size of SAG-AFTRA at 160,000 members, it’s figured that actors’ return to work during a contract ratification period might not be as feasible as it was for the 12,000-strong WGA, whose members returned before a final vote on their new contract.
In that context, SAG-AFTRA members and their allies were out in force in front of studio lots and offices in Los Angeles and New York today, with a near full week of picketing planned as of right now. This week also will see two of the top-tier CEOs facing Wall Street scrutiny as both Warner Bros Discovery and Disney release their latest quarterly earnings and project into the New Year.
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing thousands of actors, remains on strike despite receiving what it says is a “last, best and final” three-year contract offer from producers. But one observer tells CBS News that the use of artificial intelligence remains a sticking point. Carter Evans reports.
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SAG-AFTRA may take another day to respond to the studios’ “last, best and final” offer, as the union’s negotiating committee continues to weigh its next move.
The studios last talked to union leadership on Saturday afternoon, when a large group of CEOs sought to make clear that they will not make further concessions.
After that meeting, some members of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee expressed dissatisfaction with the studios’ offer. At least four of them retweeted a post that urged A-list actors to pressure the studio heads to come back with better terms.
“The time has come for you to put pressure on the CEOs,” wrote the poster, Chelsea Schwartz, a SAG-AFTRA strike captain. “Call the studio heads. Shout at them on social media. Tell them to accept our deal. You can help us end this strike and save our profession! We’re stronger together!”
Hollywood is eagerly awaiting the union’s response, as many hope to return to work as soon as possible after a six-month labor stoppage.
During the brief Zoom meeting on Saturday, SAG-AFTRA leaders advised that they would need more time to analyze and discuss the studios’ offer before giving their response. It was left unclear when the union would respond, though at least some on the studio side hoped to get a response on Sunday.
As of Sunday afternoon, however, it appeared that the response would have to wait until Monday, as the union continued to discuss the proposal internally.
The studios’ offer includes a success-based bonus structure in streaming. Under the proposal, actors would get double their typical residual if they appear in a show that ranks among the most-watched on a streaming platform.
The studios have steadily improved that bonus as the talks have gone on, but they have not acceded to the union’s demand for a cut of total streaming revenue.
The studios also offered protections against artificial intelligence, and what the studios have described as “historic” wage increases. The union has held out for robust protections against the use of AI to create “digital doubles.” The fears are especially acute for background actors, who could be among those first replaced by AI technology.
By invoking the term “last, best and final,” the studios are signaling that there will be no further negotiations, and that the offer on the table is essentially a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. However, the union can push back on elements it dislikes, and always has the option to remain on strike.
The negotiating committee for the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is reportedly meeting today, for a conversation that could have far-reaching implications for the next year of entertainment. According to the actors’ union, which has been on strike since July 14, they’re considering a proposal from Hollywood’s major streamers and studios that the group says is its “last, best, and final offer.” If the actors accept it, the strike might end soon—and if they reject it, negotiations might end for the rest of the year.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) presented the deal to the actors on Saturday, in a negotiating session that was attended virtually by “the heads of the major studios,” CNN reports. Details of the offer have not been disclosed, but outlets like Deadline suggest that many of the sticking points remain around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) especially when it comes to the likenesses and the replacement of human extras with digital ones.
The actors’ union is reviewing the studios’ offer and is “considering our response within the context of the critical issues addressed in our proposals,” they said in a message sent to members Saturday afternoon. The SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee is expected to meet today to discuss the terms, the Hollywood Reporter writes, with a decision to come after that.
The “last, best, and final” phrasing is a common one in negotiations, intended to express that the side that employs it will not offer any future concessions. But as of last week, thousands upon thousands of SAG-AFTRA members have signed an open letter saying “We would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal,” which suggests that the actors are unwilling to concede.
Unnamed “top executives” who spoke with THR say that negotiations would likely end “for the time being — or likely until the new year” if the actors turn down this offer. But if that happens, the studios stand to lose, too: plans for the 2024 TV and film schedule could combust.
But even if SAG-AFTRA leadership agrees to the deal, the strike won’t be over quite yet. First, its 160,000+ members must vote to ratify the new three-year contract. Given the tone of that open letter, it seems possible that many of the striking actors might balk if they don’t get what they seek.
“We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything we’ve been fighting for,” the letter reads. “We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed.”
Hollywood tentpole movies and hit TV series as usual drove a host of fashion choices for ordinary trick-and-treating fans everywhere — young and old — on Tuesday.
But SAG-AFTRA‘s Halloween costume rules complicated fashion choices for striking actors as they were told by their union even after a backlash to avoid dressing up as Barbie and Ken or other superhero or sexy pop culture characters drawn from a struck studio project.
On Tuesday, Sarah Michelle Gellartook to Instagram to announce she and Freddy Prinze Jr. decided to scrap their Halloween costumes as fellow actors walked picket lines on the 110th day of a labor action between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios during ongoing contract talks.
“Normally this is when we would post our Halloween couples photo, but due [to] the ongoing strike, we had to scrap our original costumes. So, if you are out trick or treating tonight and see a very realistic Sarah Michelle and Freddie costume… it might just be us. See you next year,” Gellar wrote.
A flag-waving Don Lemon and partner Tim Malone on the former CNN host’s Instagram account stayed safe as they showed off respective Halloween costumes as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. Striking actors were reported to have dressed as generic ghosts, witches and vampires while walking a picket line outside the Los Angeles office of Netflix.
But SAG-AFTRA didn’t have it all its own way with its Halloween restrictions on not dressing up as licensed studio movie or TV characters.
Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly took to Instagram to post photos of themselves dressed for Halloween as bloodied Kill Bill characters from Quentin Tarantino’s 2004 movie. Fox captioned her Instagram post “@sagaftra,” apparently to mock the actors union.
That drew condemnation from fellow actor Lisa Ann Walter, who took to X, formerly Twitter, to call out Fox for her fashion faux pas: “What a rebel. Keep posturing for stupid shit, pretty lady. Meanwhile we’ll be working 10 hours a day – unpaid – to get basic contract earners a fair deal”
While Fox dressed up as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill: Vol. 1, that film was originally released by Disney division Miramax, but the rights to the classic revenge thriller were recently picked up by Lionsgate, which is not part of the AMPTP and plans a re-release of the Kill Bill movies.
H.E.R. during Heidi Klum’s 22nd Annual Halloween Party
SAG-AFTRA is set to meet again on Wednesday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a “productive” day of talks on Tuesday.
The sides continue to project “cautious optimism” about resolving the strike, which is now on Day 110. The studios have warned that they must get a deal this week in order to be able to produce partial seasons of scripted network TV series.
The union continues to bargain over the use of artificial intelligence, which has become one of the key remaining issues, though not the only one. The union is not seeking for forbid studios from using AI to create “digital doubles,” but does want language guaranteeing consent and minimum compensation for such use. The union has also sought to restrict AI training on past work, and has asked for a provision giving the union a veto over AI uses.
Once again, four studio CEOs — David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, Donna Langley of NBC Universal, and Bob Iger of Disney — did not participate in the talks on Tuesday. They have not been at the negotiating table since last Thursday, leaving the bargaining again to AMPTP CEO Carol Lombardini and her staff.
For the 111th day of the strike on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA is holding a “unity picket” at Disney headquarters in Burbank. Picketing at other L.A. locations will be canceled for the day.
On Monday night, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee said that recent talks had been productive, but said the two sides remain “far apart on key issues.”
The union has also urged members to keep up the pressure on the AMPTP by continuing to picket, and by posting on social media in support of the strike.
A group of high-profile actors have signed a public letter declaring that they would rather stay on strike rather than accept a bad deal.
Thousands of stars including Sarah Paulson, Chelsea Handler, Christian Slater, Sandra Oh, Daveed Diggs, Pedro Pascal and Kal Penn have signed the letter, which is addressed to the SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee.
“Back in June, before we went on strike, a large group of members signed an open letter telling our leaders that we would rather go on strike than take a bad deal. Now, more than 100 days into our strike, that is still true. As hard as this is, we would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal,” the letter opens.
“We have not come all this way to cave now. We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything we’ve been fighting for. We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed,” they added.
Other signatories include Carrie Anne Moss, Christine Baranski, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kristin Chenoweth, Leslie Odom, Jr., Lizzy Caplan, Richard Schiff, Simon Pegg, Timothy Olyphant, Zachary Quinto, Titus Welliver, Simon Helberg, Jon Hamm, Rosanna Arquette, Pamela Adlon, Noah Wyle, Maya Hawke, Margaret Cho, Lena Dunham, Kim Raver, Joshua Jackson, Helen Hunt, David Harewood and Carrie Coon.
The move comes after a separate group of actors including George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Laura Dern, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Reynolds, and Ariana DeBose made their own offer to help end the strike.
Earlier today, Deadline revealed that SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP agreed to meet again on Friday with sources saying there is “cautious optimism” over talks.
Back in June, before we went on strike, a large group of members signed an open letter telling our leaders that we would rather go on strike than take a bad deal.
Now, more than 100 days into our strike, that is still true. As hard as this is, we would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal.
We have not come all this way to cave now. We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything we’ve been fighting for. We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed.
In any union, there will always be a minority who are not willing to make temporary sacrifices for the greater good. But we, the majority who voted overwhelmingly to authorize this strike, are still standing in solidarity, ready to strike as long as it takes and to endure whatever we must in order to win a deal that is worthy of our collective sacrifice. We know that our union leaders are doing everything in their power to achieve that goal as they negotiate in good faith with the companies to arrive at a new contract that will protect us and our fellow performers, now and for generations to come.
Everything we have as a union – every minimum payment, health and pension benefit, residual, royalty, and workplace protection – it has all been won with the power of our members; the power of our solidarity; the power of standing together as one to demand what is right, what is fair, and what we deserve. You have our trust, our support, and our power behind you now.
One day longer. One day stronger. For as long as it takes.
Jack Black donned his “Kung Fu Panda” character’s uniform — in other words, was shirtless — to sing Taylor Swift‘s “Anti-Hero” at a SAG-AFTRA fundraiser on Oct. 25.
In fan-captured footage uploaded to X (formerly Twitter), Black is seen on onstage, having just performed a stand-up comedy set at the “Give Back-ular Spectacular!” event held at the Orpheum Theater, which supports members of SAG-AFTRA affected by the current strike. Other performers present included Janelle James, Halle Berry, Lily Tomlin and Dax Shepard.
Black then takes off his shirt and tosses it on the ground. Once down to his boxers, Black paces on the stage, surveying the crowd as they clap and cheer. Black holds the microphone to the crowd, asking if they have any requests. One audience member throws out a song, to which Black replies, “I know that. Yes, I know that one. I can’t do that one. We’re in a strike.”
“But I know that one,” Black adds. “Everyone knows that fucking song.”
The “School of Rock” actor starts belting out Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” singing, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” He dances around on stage, even performing a kick or two as he sings and poses for a thrilled audience. As the song progresses, Black’s rendition becomes more guttural. When it’s clear that Black no longer remembers the lyrics, he begins singing gibberish instead — still to the tune of “Anti-Hero.”
It was a lighthearted moment amid the seriousness of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, which have had a considerably negative impact on the economy since starting in July. The “Give Back-ular Spectacular!” raised emergency relief funds for both union and non-union crew members in need, seeing that many of the crew members have gone without a paycheck during the hiatus as tension remains between SAG-AFTRA and the studios. The SAG-AFTRA strike has lasted 104 days, and the combined writers and actors strikes have lasted nearly six months.
On the first day of the SAG-AFTRA strike in July, union president Fran Drescher was asked how long she expected it to last.
“We’re set up to go six months if we have to,” Drescher said.
It hasn’t been that long yet. But as the strike reaches the 100-day mark on Saturday, it is already the longest actors strike involving the film and TV companies in Hollywood history.
It’s also not clear that it will be over any time soon. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers suspended negotiations on Oct. 11, and there has been, as yet, no sign of a return to the bargaining table.
SAG-AFTRA has expressed frustration over the lack of talks. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s chief negotiator, said the 100-day milestone is a reminder of how little substantive negotiation has taken place since the strike began.
“We all will reflect on the fact that it’s been such a long time and so many of those days have been spent out on the picket lines and not in the room negotiating with the companies,” he said.
Asked if he still thought it was possible for the strike to go into January, he said, “I certainly hope it won’t be that long. But it requires two parties to talk in order for us to move things forward.”
A key question is how long SAG-AFTRA can maintain its solidarity. Drescher is now facing dissent from A-listers led by George Clooney, who went public on Thursday with an alternate plan to resolve the strike. Drescher quickly shot it down as unworkable, but the back-and-forth exposed a rift between the guild and many of its most famous members.
Union leaders are also urging members to show their support by spending just a couple hours a day on the picket lines.
The guild has also noted that the Writers Guild of America strike lasted much longer, and succeeded in getting a deal that addressed all of the union’s demands.
“The WGA triumphed after 148 hard-fought days, proof that perseverance will break the toughest barriers and result in the transformative change we need to justify everyone’s sacrifices,” the union said in a message to members.
Taken together, the two Hollywood strikes have now lasted 173 days, and the economic toll is climbing, both for actors and for below-the-line workers.
Jules Bruff, a Disney strike captain, said that members are stressed out, and some are seeking out mental health resources. But, she said that spirits remain high on the lines.
“The thing about actors is we are incredibly resilient,” she said. “We’re starting to get tired physically, but we’re resolved.”
Laurie Hendler, another captain at Disney, said that membership was reenergized when the AMPTP walked away from the table.
“I think some of us were kind of feeling like we could coast through to the end,” she said. “And the next morning we had hundreds of people out here… I think that the studios are hoping they can divide us. They’re hoping they can break us. And they’re hoping that if they take their time, we will fall apart. And the fact that there are so many of us out here shows that that’s not going to happen.”
Former SAG-AFTRA president Melissa Gilbert has blasted a SAG-AFTRA message that urged its members not to dress up as characters from struck companies this Halloween.
SAG-AFTRA published a post on its website encouraging members to “celebrate Halloween this year while also staying in solidarity.” The guild recommended striking actors “choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures,” including a “ghost, zombie, spider, etc.,” or “characters from non-struck content, like an animated TV show.”
Gilbert was incensed at the suggestions.
“THIS is what you guys come up with? Literally no one cares what anyone wears for Halloween,” Gilbert wrote on Instagram. “I mean, do you really think this kind of infantile stuff is going to end the strike? We look like a joke. Please tell me you’re going to make this rule go away… and go negotiate!”
Gilbert directly tagged the Instagram accounts of current SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
“For the love of God, people are suffering mightily and this is what you have to say… c’mon guys… This is the kind of silly bullshit that keeps us on strike. ‘Let’s enact a policy that makes us look petty and incompetent at the same time.’”
Gilbert was in charge of the actors union from 2001 to 2005.
Halloween in Hollywood may look a little different this year as actors have been instructed not to wear costumes inspired by famous movies and TV series amid the ongoing Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike. If A-list couples were hoping on being Barbie and Ken this year, looks like they’ll have to change their plans.
SAG-AFTRA released the Halloween guidance in a Wednesday post on their website, providing tips and tricks on how to “make Halloween a scream” with “strike-friendly” costumes.
Strike rules dictate that actors cannot promote content from major studios, who are on the other side of the bargaining table as actors negotiate a new contract. So far, this has played out in stripped-down film festivals and a dearth of promotion for new movies and TV shows.
TIFF to see fewer stars amid Hollywood strikes
Now, with Halloween approaching, actors have been reminded of their union commitments not to promote struck content with their costumes.
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“Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract,” the union writes.
SAG-AFTRA recommends that actors dress up in more generic costumes, instead of specific characters. Say, a spider instead of Spider-Man, or a chef instead of Carmy from FX’s The Bear.
Actors are, however, permitted to dress up as characters from animated TV shows and other non-struck content.
A few high-profile movies were given strike exemptions because they were filmed outside the U.S. without affiliation with Hollywood studios, including A24’s Priscilla. So actors would seemingly be able to dress up at Jacob Elordi’s Elvis Presley, though Austin Butler’s rendition of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll from Warner Bros.’ Elvis is off the table.
There are some grey areas: Hit summer blockbuster Barbie is sure to inspire tons of costumes this Halloween, and while Barbie is back in the public eye because of the Warner Bros. film, she is first and foremost a creation by toy company Mattel.
Would actors be able to dress up as a Barbie, so long as the costume wasn’t inspired by the 2023 movie? The answer is unclear, though actors probably don’t want to wade into those muddy waters and find out.
Wednesday Addams is sure to be another popular costume this year off the success of Netflix’s Wednesday, though the character first appeared in a series of one-panel comics for The New Yorker.
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Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds weighed in on the costume rules with a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing that he looks forward to “screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 year old all night.”
“She’s not in the union but she needs to learn,” he added.
While the Hollywood writers’ strike has come to an end, the actors’ strike is still ongoing and will reach its 100th day on Saturday.
Hopes were high and leaders of the union were cautiously optimistic when they resumed negotiations on Oct. 2 for the first time since the strike began two-and-a-half months earlier.
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The same group of chief executives from the biggest studios had made a major deal just over a week earlier with striking writers, whose leaders celebrated their gains on many issues actors are also fighting for: long-term pay, consistency of employment and control over the use of artificial intelligence.
But the actors’ talks were tepid, with days off between sessions and no reports of progress. Then studios abruptly ended them on Oct. 11, saying the actors’ demands were exorbitantly expensive and the two sides were too far apart to continue.
Thanks, George. But your proposal to take the cap off union dues in order to end SAG-AFTRA‘s strike isn’t legally compatible with the union’s contract.
The Clooney offer “does not impact the contract that we’re striking over whatsoever,” said Drescher.
Clooney and his supporters made the offer earlier this week in a meeting with SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Drescher. The hope by Clooney et. al was that their excess funds would bridge the gap between the studio and streamers’ offer and the unions requests.
The proposal also sought to get lower-income members paid in residuals before higher-income members.
“First of all, I want to thank certain members that wield a lot of clout in this business for the tremendous amount of money that they contributed to our foundation,” Drescher said in a video posted to Instagram. “I also want to thank George Clooney for organizing the suggestion that… take the caps off of the dues so that the highest paid members can contribute more. Although that’s extremely generous and we accept that graciously.”
Drescher outlined why the proposal wouldn’t work.
“We are a federally regulated labor union and the only contributions that can go into our pension and health funds must be from the employer. So what we are fighting for in terms of benefits has to remain in this contract.”
She added, “[It’s] kind of apples and oranges, just so everybody understands that.”
As for residuals, there’s also a legal problem.
“There was a reference to a suggestion of maybe a solution from some people of how maybe we can get back to the table with some kind of a residual. But that was vetted by our very experienced union contract staff negotiators and lawyers. And they said that it unfortunately doesn’t hold water because, frankly, this is a very nuanced house of cards.
“So although we appreciate the effort and the desire to be supportive to all the member body, we at the union and with the negotiating committee are still waiting for the CEOs to return to the table so we can continue our talks,” Drescher said. ,
“Because in either saying no or walking away from the table, you are not really in a negotiation.”
Los Angeles — Talks bitterly broke off between Hollywood actors and studios late Wednesday, killing any hopes that the three-month strike by performers would come to an end anytime soon.
The studios announced that they’d suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it, despite an offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers strike. The actors union decried their opponents’ “bullying tactics” and said the studios were wildly mischaracterizing their offers.
On Oct. 2, for the first time since the strike began July 14, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks.
When negotiations resumed with writers last month, their strike ended five days later, but similar progress wasn’t made with the actors union.
The studios walked away from talks after seeing the actors’ most recent proposal on Wednesday.
“It is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement.
The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost companies an additional $800 million a year and create “an untenable economic burden,” the statement said.
In a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said that figure was overestimated by 60%. The union said its negotiators were “profoundly disappointed” the studios had broken off talks.
“We have negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter read, “despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”
Actors have been on strike over issues including increases in pay for streaming programming and control of the use of their images generated by artificial intelligence.
The AMPTP insisted its offers had been as generous as the deals that brought an end to the writers strike and brought a new contract to the directors guild earlier this year.
But the union letter to actors said the companies “refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”
From the start, the actors talks had nothing like the momentum that spurred marathon night-and-weekend sessions in the writers strike and brought that work stoppage to an end. Actors and studios had taken several days off after resuming, and there were no reports of meaningful progress despite direct involvement from the heads of studios including Disney and Netflix as there had been in the writers strike.
The writers did have their own false start in negotiations, however. A month before the successful talks, the initial attempt to restart ended after just a few days.
Members of the Writers Guild of America voted almost unanimously to ratify their new contract on Monday.
Their leaders touted their deal as achieving most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier.
They declared their strike over and sent writers back to work on Sept. 26.
Late night talk shows returned to the air within a week, and other shows including “Saturday Night Live” will soon follow.
But with no actors, production on scripted shows and movies will stay on pause indefinitely.
The Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood studios resumed bargaining talks on Wednesday. It’s a sign of progress as the strike nears the three-month mark. CBS News correspondent Elise Preston reports.
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