I'm On Strike!

I am a member of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Actors. And we are on strike. I have walked a couple of picket lines as we now pass our 100th day of striking. I believe in the value and strength of unions, which has certainly and unfortunately been diminished over the last several decades by corporate powers, leaving said corporate powers in even stronger positions to squash any sort of movement for fairness. But it seems like unions are making a comeback, and I support mine.

You might think this strike is a bunch of pampered, privileged Hollywood actors throwing a tantrum about their already outrageously high wages. But they only represent about 1% of SAG-AFTRA membership. This is really about the work-a-day actors who, despite that fact that they may have gotten some small roles on a Netflix or other streaming platform series, simply do not make the kind of money the public thinks of as "Hollywood money."

Take, for example, recurring guest stars (far larger than "small roles" or walk-ons) from the Netflix hit show "Orange Is The New Black." Kimiko Glenn, who played idealistic activist Brook Soso, opened a royalty check to discover that appearing on 45 episodes of a highly popular and highly grossing (for Netflix) show got her a paltry $27.30.

Castmate Matt McGorry who played a corrections officer at the women's prison said, "I kept my day job the entire time I was on the show because it paid better than the mega-hit TV show we were on."

Beth Dover, who appeared as Linda Ferguson said, "It actually COST me money to be in season 3 and 4 since I was cast local hire and had to fly myself out, etc. But I was so excited for the opportunity to be on a show I loved so I took the hit. It's maddening." In an article in The New Yorker, she said, "They're telling us, 'Oh, we can't pay you this much, because we're pinching pennies. But then Netflix is telling their shareholders that they're making more than they've ever made."

In addition to the issue of fair compensation and contributions to Health and Pension funds, a huge sticking point has been the use of AI in our industry. The giant entertainment corporations are on track to harvest the faces and voices of talent and use them in AI generated programs to make us do and say anything they want forever, in any format, in any genre, with only a small buy-out for the actor. It seems a raw deal.

I know firsthand from being in the on-camera world here in Northern California for nearly thirty years that actors are almost always an afterthought, a bother, a sort of necessary evil. I saw how production companies would be hired by a client (for a commercial or an industrial, both of which were my bread-and-butter work for decades, excluding my occasional film and episodic television jobs)...then a director would be hired and they would all work together for months, taking a lot of time and care to develop a concept and storyboard a script (and possibly even work in tandem with focus groups). In contrast, I would get a call from my agent on, say, Monday afternoon, to be at an audition the next morning, Tuesday at 10am. At that audition, we would be informed that the commercial or industrial would shoot on Thursday. We were the afterthought, the bother. Time and again, I felt from nearly everyone in the casting room a sense that us actors are a nuisance, the thing they wait until the very last minute to even consider. To them we are just living pieces of set dressing. A few times I actually got a sense of disdain, even contempt (there was one director in particular, David Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named who was markedly frosty).

This is not to say that everyone was like that. I worked with some great directors and cinematographers, and some very nice industry people who had respect for me (I want to add that make-up, hair, and wardrobe were always lovely), but mostly the other side of the casting table felt hostile.

So, knowing what I do from my years in the industry, it does not surprise me that the entertainment corporations are willing to steal our images and voices, and cheat us out of a percentage (SAG-AFTRA asked for only 2% of streaming revenue and when the corporations rejected that, my union went down to 1%--JUST ONE PERCENT--which was then again rejected) of the enormous revenue stream they generate for their shareholders. It is unethical that a tiny percentage of that revenue stream does not go to us, the ones who make the programming possible. They can have a great script, a wonderful location, great sets, clever lighting, beautiful costumes, and a moving soundtrack, but without us, there is no show.

I will continue to support a strike as long as needed to force some change and a move toward fairness in the industry. Just yesterday, the entertainment giants came back to the bargaining table. We have resolve. We will see what they do.

https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/