The wait is finally over.  On November 9th the Hollywood actors’ strike ended.  Shows like "Wednesday", "Stranger Things" and "The Summer I Turned Pretty " were delayed first by the Hollywood Writers Strike and then by the Hollywood Actors Strike.  Now the filming of these shows can finally start.

The Hollywood Writers strike started on May 2, 2023 and ended on October 27th.  So, now the scripts for the shows are complete.  But, on July 14, 2023, the Hollywood Actors strike started and just ended, lasting over 100 days! It has been declared the longest actors strike in history and is only predicted to last longer. The actors union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), was fighting for many of the same things writers were fighting for; long-term pay, consistency of employment and regulating artificial intelligence (AI).

Of these demands, regulations on AI are probably the most complex. The actors do not want the studios to create fake people or take their likeness and act out scenes. 

The SAG-AFTRA and studios only discussed agreements for a very short time at first. In fact, the studios ended discussions soon after they began on Oct. 11. Thd studios said that the Union´s demands were too expensive and too complicated.

“We only met with them a couple of times, Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told The Associated Press soon after the talks broke off. “Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then, ‘Bye-bye.’ I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table?”

The SAG-AFTRA was negotiating with the Alliance Motion & Television Producers or AMPTP. The SAG-AFTRA believes to have fair pay they must be given a salary or bonus based on the amount of subscribers. The AMPTP says it is an unrealistic demand. 

“SAG-AFTRA gave the member companies an ultimatum: either agree to a proposal for a tax on subscribers as well as all other open items, or else the strike would continue,” the AMPTP said in a statement to the Associated Press. “The member companies responded to SAG-AFTRA’s ultimatum that unfortunately, the tax on subscribers poses an untenable economic burden.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders say that it is ridiculous to say their demand was a tax on customers and that it is the executives themselves who want to shift a model on shows popularity to the number of subscribers. Studios then said that a per-subscriber charge would cost them $800 million a year. Which SAG-AFTRA said is an over estimate.  

The SAG-AFTRA and studios have discussed their new contract on November 8th and come to an agreement. The new contract boosts the minimum payment for actors, streaming revenue for actors and protection against AI and re-creating performances. Both the SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP seem to be reacting very positively about the new contract. 

“It’s an agreement that our members can be proud of. I’m certainly very proud of it,” Crabtree-Ireland told The Associated Press in an interview. “We said we would only accept a fair, equitable and respectful deal, and that’s precisely what this deal is. So I think our members, as we are able to release more of the details of it, will look at them and say, now this is something that was worth being on strike for.”

The AMPTP says the “agreement represents a new paradigm. It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union.” The AMPTP said it “looks forward to the industry resuming the work of telling great stories.”

This strike has affected many movies and T.V shows, including, "The Summer I Turned Pretty", “Wednesday”, “Stranger Things” and “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim”. All of these scripts have been completed after the Hollywood Writers Strike and now the actors must film it. The shows and movies are planned to come out in 2024 or even 2025. The strike has also postponed the Emmy Award until January. 

Luckily, actors can now return to set to film . However, the contract lasts 3 years, so once that runs out, the actors will have another problem on their hands! In the meantime you can watch the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie” which does not require any scripts or actors. Remember to bring you friendship bracelets!

Works Cited

DALTON, ANDREW. “Actors strike: Here's why a deal hasn’t been reached.” AP News, 21 October 2023, https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-100-days-explained-hollywood-40e0e325f7c92b6853bdc01c4c54b08c. Accessed 13 November 2023.

DALTON, ANDREW, and KRYSTA FAURIA. “Actors union reaches deal with studios to end strike.” AP News, 9 November 2023, https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-ends-hollywood-5769ab584bca99fe708c67d00d2ec241. Accessed 13 November 2023.

“Movies and TV shows affected by Hollywood actors and screenwriters' strikes.” AP News, 25 August 2023, https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-delayed-shows-movies-writers-42b99032bb638930df097f675b363898. Accessed 13 November 2023.

“Movies and TV shows affected by Hollywood actors and screenwriters' strikes.” AP News, 2 November 2023, https://apnews.com/article/hollywood-strikes-actors-delays-yellowstone-disney-894d6a4eccb05aaba550a454ab523c8b. Accessed 13 November 2023.