SAG strike news: Universal Studios accused of pruning trees to remove shade for picketing actors and writers

Following the historic Hollywood shutdown brought on by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) joining the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to strike against streamers and studios, the list of TV and movies impacted has grown.

Find out which projects have been impacted here.

Blade to Yellowjackets: Every TV show and movie affected by historic Hollywood actors and writers’ strike

Production across the industry is being impacted by the protests

Actor Mark Ruffalo has urged his fellow stars to work with indie producers, following the news that SAG-AFTRA will soon be signing “interim agreements” with truly independent producers that will allow many of them to make projects during the strike, as long as they are not affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

“Then we just do what we always do – create great content and they can buy it, or we take it out ourselves and WE share in those sales,” he tweeted. “They’ve created an empire of billionaires and believe that we are no longer of value. While they hang out in the billionaire boy summer camps laughing like fat cats, we organise a new world for workers.”

While the ongoing double strike, which has effectively shut down Hollywood, is a historic event, it’s not the first of its kind.

In 1960, the industry experienced its first joint walkout between the actors’ guild (SAG-AFTRA) and the screenwriters union (Writers Guild of America).

The strike was led by Ronald Reagan, who was the SAG president at the time, years before his US presidency.

The WGA first went on strike, beginning on 16 January 1960, before SAG-AFTRA began their own strike on 7 March 1960. While the latter ended picketing on 18 April 1960, the former strike lasted until 12 June 1960.

For those interested in supporting the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike, there are several things you can do.

While it may seem counterintuitive, you should not cancel your streaming subscriptions, actor Dave Wallace tweeted. In fact, he argued that doing the exact opposite “would actually be more supportive”.

Meanwhile, Neil Gaiman addressed a fan on Tumblr who asked if going to see Barbie in theatres would be “crossing the picket line” and whether they should “wait until the strike has been resolved”.

“No, it’s not crossing a picket line to go and see anything,” the Good Omens author responded. “Continuing to go see your movies, watch your shows, streaming your favourites is one of the best ways to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA right now.”

He explained that consuming content “helps immensely to show the studios the value of the work that writers and actors do”.

“If you don’t go, it hurts writers and actors,” Gaiman said. “Studios can say, ‘Well, actually Barbie only made $X dollars, Oppenheimer only made $Y dollars, only so many thousands of people watched Good Omens 2, obviously there isn’t enough money to go around.

“See the stuff you want to see with reckless abandon,” he encouraged.

In an interview on Friday (15 July) with Sky News, the 77-year-old British actor said the strike “could get very, very unpleasant” and “could go on for quite some time”. He said: “They’ll take us to the brink and we’ll probably have to go to the brink.”

Cox also addressed actors’ concerns about the use of AI in film and television production, such as using artificial intelligence to write scripts or generate actors’ likenesses without consent. “We don’t know the extent to which it can operate,” he said. “It’s the boogeyman, it really is the boogeyman.”

Last week, the nominations for the 2023 Emmys were announced, with Succession and The Last of Us leading the pack.

Typically, the awards ceremony is held in September and broadcast live, but there could be a delay this year because the strike’s rules bar members from participating in various promotional events, most notably awards shows.

A final decision is expected to be made by the end of July.

Read the full list of nominees here.

Succession makes Emmy history as full list of award nominations announced

HBO’s ‘The White Lotus’ also picked up a large amount of nominations

Will the actors’ strike affect Broadway?

While the total membership comprises more than 160,000 people, only the 65,000 performers in TV and film productions are currently participating in the strike.

Read more:

What the actors’ strike means for Broadway shows

Screen Actors Guild announced industrial action to coincide with writers’ strike

Along with film premieres, Comic-Con, 90s Con and many more promotional events that are expected to be negatively impacted as a result of the actors’ strike, fall film festivals are also “f***ed”, one studio executive put it bluntly.

“You can’t premiere movies anywhere without your stars,” the executive told Variety. “No stars, no movie.”

The Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals, which are scheduled for this fall, are at risk of being derailed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, should it last for months.

Colorado’s famed Telluride Film Festival, which is to run from 31 August through 4 September, could potentially remain the least impacted as it doesn’t hold press conferences or step-and-repeats like many others do.

“Telluride will be mostly unaffected,” one studio executive told the outlet. “I can’t say the same for the others.”

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is expected to take place from 7 September through 17 September, followed by the New York Film Festival from 29 September until 15 October.

It’s unknown how long the Hollywood shutdown could last, however, SAG is ready for “the long haul”. So until studios and SAG come to an agreement on a fair contract, this fall might be a risky season for TV and film.

“Streaming residuals” has become a buzzworthy term thanks to the ongoing strike. Now, if you felt like it was too late to ask: What exactly are streaming residuals? Have no fear, The Office’s David Denman has broken it down for you.

“Netflix, they created a model that everyone else followed,” the actor told The Associated Press while on the picket lines in Los Angeles, “which is, we’re going to buy you out. We’re going to pay for your services for a cycle, which would be three months.

“And it doesn’t matter if you watch that show one or you watch it 100 times, you’re not going to get any more money because more people watched it. The only person that makes more money is the person who licensed that to Netflix.”

Offering an example, he continued: “So Universal [Studios] licensed that to Netflix. And when it was the number one show on Netflix, they’re able to make a significant profit off of that, but that doesn’t trickle down to the blue-collar actor like me.”

While SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines bar its members from posting any promotional material for studios during the strike on social media, there’s an additional caveat for those who hope to gain future membership too.

“Any non-member seeking future membership in SAG-AFTRA who performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike will not be admitted into membership in SAG-AFTRA,” it explicitly states under the website’s strike Dos and Don’ts.

So for all those social media influencers, who hope to someday join the actors’ guild, refrain from promoting projects made under SAG contracts on social media.

Although, for all those influencers who were already invited to Disney World’s Saturday premiere of Haunted Mansion, it’s understood that their red carpet presence was already cleared.

“If an influencer is already under contract to promote struck work, then the influencer should fulfill their work obligation,” the guidelines add.