The 'Oppenheimer' Cast Left The UK Premiere Of The Film To Join The SAG-AFTRA Strike

Matt Fitzgerald7/13/2023 8:40 PM

Matt Damon spoke to Variety on the red carpet of Oppenheimer on Thursday and explained some of the issues at hand in the actors' SAG-AFTRA strike. Damon added that his fellow castmates would support the union with a collective exit if the strike was called:

"Look, if it’s called now, everyone’s going to walk obviously in solidarity...Once the strike is officially called, [we’re walking]. That’s why we moved this [red carpet] up because we know the second it’s called, we’re going home. We gave the strike authorization. We voted 98% to 2% to do that because we know our leadership has our best interest at heart."
"It’s really about working actors. It’s $26,000 to qualify for health coverage and a lot of people are on the margins and residual payments are getting them across that threshold. This isn’t an academic exercise. This is real life and death stuff. Hopefully we get to a resolution quickly. No one wants a work stoppage, but we’ve got to get a fair deal."

Below is video of the SAG-AFTRA press conference to officially announce the strike from Thursday afternoon. The strike begins at midnight tonight.

This just goes to show what a massive impact this collective WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike will have on the entertainment industry. Going to be pretty challenging for any productions to be mounted without the services of writers or actors.

Meanwhile, you have Disney CEO Bob Iger claiming that the demands of writers and actors are not being "realistic" while he collects a $27 million annual salary plus an exorbitant bonus:

Good thing Iger just signed a contract extension through 2026. Look, I dig Disney and generally don't have much bad to say about the creative choices overseen by Iger. That said, this is the exact type of out-of-touch rhetoric that's going to turn off so many people inside and outside of the industry.

Iger is certainly right that the disruptive forces are at play, largely brought about by streamers and release date pushbacks/production delays from COVID. Sounds like it's going to be quite the stand-off.

The Wire creator David Simon chimed in with quite the zinger in response to what he perceived as a threat from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just before SAG-AFTRA voted for strike authorization.

SAG-AFTRA picket lines are already starting up, spanning from New York City to Los Angeles.

What this all boils down to is fairly compensating the artists who are responsible for executing stories. Sure, the most visible actors make millions of dollars per project, but that's not the norm. Depending where you look, approximately 2% of SAG-AFTRA actors are working at any given time. Yup. Jobs are pretty damn hard to come by.

Because streaming is such a new phenomenon, writers and actors are essentially being taken advantage of while the typical AMPTP powers that be who sit atop the industry pyramid rake in and hoard excessive amounts of money.

I have a little more faith in this instance that a sensible resolution can be reached — even if it gets ugly for a while. You have to feel for the crew workers as well, many of whom obviously don't make the high-end salaries of the top creative talent on any given production.

This dual WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike is going to totally change the game. As long as we can avoid a Black Mirror "Joan Is Awful" scenario with AI and get everyone reasonable pay, I think we'll all be happy…