Hollywood’s actors are officially on strike

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union representing working actors, is on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike will begin at midnight on July 14, after the two sides failed to agree on a new contract before the previous one expired earlier this week. The SAG strike adds to Hollywood’s ongoing labor unrest; the Writers Guild of America (WGA) remains on strike after negotiations with AMPTP over its own members’ contracts ended in May.

The SAG-AFTRA strike means that actors who are members of SAG-AFTRA will not be working with studios on their projects, including but not limited to television, movies, podcasts and radio. This means that anything currently in production will be forced to halt until the two parties can agree on a new contract – without actors there is nothing to shoot. Actors will also stop attending promotional events ranging from press conferences to movie premieres to hot.

AMPTP condemned the labor action in a statement, saying: “A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for, as studios cannot operate without the artists who bring our TV shows and movies to life. Unfortunately, the Union has chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people dependent on the industry.”

Strikes by guilds of major actors are quite rare, especially recently. In 1986, SAG went on strike over contract updates, with action lasting just 14 hours. SAG’s 1980 had more impact, lasting three months and three days. The last time both SAG and WGA went on strike at the same time was in 1960.

While the full results of the SAG-AFTRA strike are impossible to know, one thing that is almost certain is movie and TV show delays on the horizon. Some projects have already been delayed by the WGA strike, but that was largely limited to films and series that were not yet in production and still in the works. With actors not working, no series in production can continue without a ratified contract.

These delays are also likely to have a cascading effect, delaying movies further down the calendar, as once the strike is over, actors usually go back to what they were working on at the start, rather than continuing on to new projects.

Despite the strike, SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP representatives will continue to negotiate in the coming days, weeks and months in the hope of reaching agreement on a new contract.

To develop…