Reuters. Hollywood actors sent on strike at midnight on Thursday (July 13) after talks with studios broke down, joining film and television writers who have been on picket lines since May and deepening the disruption of scores of shows and movies.
Studios now face their first dual work stoppage in 63 years, forcing them to halt many productions across the United States and abroad. The twin strikes will add to the economic damage from the writers walkout, delivering another blow to an industry struggling with changes to its business.
The union known as SAG-AFTRA Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) - whose 160,000 film and TV members make it Hollywood's largest - has joined the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era, plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
The actors fear AI could be used to duplicate their voices and likenesses. Actors have used contract talks with the Hollywood studios to try to assert control over how these digital simulations are used on screen. It is one of several sticking points in contract talks with the Hollywood studios, which ended Wednesday (July 12) without agreement.
Fran Drescher, former star of "The Nanny" TV show and the president of SAG-AFTRA, called the studios' responses to actors' concerns "insulting and disrespectful."
Hollywood has not faced simultaneous strikes since 1960, when members of the WGA and the Screen Actors Guild both walked off the job in a fight over residuals from films sold to TV networks.
