“The. Fucking. Nanny.” That’s how Writers Guild of America West board member Liz Alper effectively summed up how members of the striking union felt about SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s impassioned comments Thursday afternoon after the guild formally announced plans to strike after contract talks with the studios and streamers broke down after four weeks of negotiations.
SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who joined Drescher at the podium at SAG’s Miracle Mile headquarters, said the national board “unanimously voted to issue a strike order” Thursday morning. The 160,000-member performers union will join the 11,000-plus members of the WGA on the picket lines starting Friday, marking the first dual strike in Hollywood in more than six decades.
“They’ve recognized, as writers have, that the studios have broken the business and are calling the studios to account,” one showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter following the SAG-AFTRA news conference. “We don’t point out how much money these CEOs make to shame them — though they should be ashamed. We point it out to demonstrate that these companies clearly have money. They just don’t want to give it to writers or actors.”
The SAG-AFTRA strike order came after talks between the performers union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents studios and streamers — ended July 12 without a new contract. The initial three-year pact was extended from its June 30 expiration and, according to Drescher, the AMPTP “wasted” those additional 12 days. “They stayed locked behind closed doors and canceled our meetings with them,” the former star of The Nanny said from the podium.
“Fran was amazing. The system has been too unfair to too many for too long and I think it needs to be remade more fair for everyone,” said another showrunner with multiple shows on the air. The actors strike, which will see newly minted Emmy nominees immediately halt all campaigning and could delay the September ceremony, comes the same day that Disney CEO Bob Iger sparked furor among some SAG-AFTRA and WGA members during an appearance on CNBC in which he said both guilds’ demands were “not realistic.”
“Dude demands $45 million a year plus a golden parachute in case he fucks it all up — and we’re the ones being unrealistic? If studios making $30 billion in profit every year are really struggling, take a pay cut, Bob,” wrote David Slack, a former member of the WGA’s negotiating committee. “Then #PayYourWriters.”
One showrunner with business at Disney joked that Iger was “stealing the crown” from David Zaslav as the marquee studio villain. “He must owe Zaslav a favor,” said the showrunner. (Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, has become one of the union members’ go-to studio villains after a string of decisions that rankled creatives including announced cuts at Turner Classic Movies and disappearing content from streaming service Max, among other moves designed as part of a multi-billion-dollar cost savings push following the merger of the two companies.)
“Lest any rich, conservative AMPTP corporate types think us wacky, liberal artist types are being unreasonable, the president of SAG during the previous actors strike was…(checks notes): *Ronald Reagan.*” How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas wrote.
Out on the picket lines, many WGA members huddled around cell phones streaming the SAG-AFTRA news conference and cheered Drescher on as passers-by honked in support. Outside the Disney lot in Burbank those remaining close to the 2 p.m. strike wrap time pitched movies about Drescher and other labor leaders including WGA West chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and Lindsay Dougherty, the Teamsters leader who represents more than 6,500 below-the-line industry employees in L.A. “So proud of her!” said one WGA picketer in front of Disney’s Burbank headquarters, where temperatures topped 90 degrees.
SAG-AFTRA members will join the WGA on the picket lines starting Friday. During the strike, performers will be barred from acting services as well as publicity, including conventions, festivals, FYC events, premieres, junkets, interviews and the use of social media to promote a studio-based film or TV series.
Summed up strike captain Caroline Renard: “A strike is meant to be disruptive & inconvenient. We’re not playing patty cake on the playground. No Venice, no TIFF, no press tours, no red carpets, no shows, filming, etc for the foreseeable future. If the studios think they can do this without writers & actors, then let them.”
