AI, residuals, and lack of trust. Can Hollywood find a happy ending?
Outside Netflix headquarters, the sidewalk is filled with actors and writers marching together in a historic strike. It’s over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. A few palm trees, towering over the street like giant dandelions, offer scant shade. Yet the protesters, holding fans and picket signs, are in good spirits as they chant slogans such as “LA is a union town, on strike, shut it down ...”
Actors put down their scripts and walked off sets last week. That is, off the movies and TV shows that hadn’t already paused production when the Writers Guild of America commenced its strike in May. The unions representing performers and writers have each reached an impasse with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers during their respective contract negotiations.
Tourists hoping to spot A-list actors, ready for their close-ups here on Sunset Boulevard, will be disappointed. Most of the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are journeyman actors working in video games, audiobooks,
