Picket Lines Get a New Dose of Star Power

The picket line just got a pick-me-up.

Hollywood’s actors now on strike joined the picket lines across New York and Los Angeles on Friday, marching alongside striking writers under blazing sun and the occasional burst of pouring rain. 

Crowds were visibly upbeat, shouting to be heard over the sound of speakers playing songs like ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money.” Signs bore pointed slogans like “Robots are scabs!” In Los Angeles, cars honked in support of the writers and actors gathered in front of studios from traditional titans like Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to newer ones like Netflix.

“We’re definitely louder,” joked Britian Seibert, 33, who is set to appear in the FX on Hulu show “A Murder at the End of the World” and was picketing in New York. Seibert said that when she had attended past WGA strikes with friends, “we’ve been having full conversations while picketing. But this is like, there’s no way. There’s screaming, there’s music.”

More than 140,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents big stars and workaday actors alike, announced on Thursday that they were going on strike after their union failed to come to an agreement with the studios by July 12. They join the Writers Guild of America, who have been on their own standoff with the studios since May 2. Like the writers, the actors are demanding higher wages, increased residual pay doled out when TV shows or films are repeatedly shown and stronger guidelines about the use of artificial intelligence.

In response, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a coalition representing movie and TV studios, networks and streamers, has said its most recent offer in contract negotiations proposed the largest increase to minimum wages in 35 years and a 76% increase for most streaming foreign residuals. The AMPTP has also said they offered protections for performers’ digital likenesses.

Not since Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG in 1960 has there been a joint actors’ and writers’ strike. Its impact threatens to hobble the entertainment industry, already slowed by the continuing writers’ strike, by further halting productions and slowing the pipeline of new television and film releases. The Emmys, which just announced nominations on Wednesday and are scheduled for Sept. 18, could be postponed. 

As part of the guild’s rules for going on strike, actors can’t attend red-carpet premieres or promote their work in interviews or at festivals like Comic-Con, which is scheduled to begin next week, and the Venice Film Festival, happening at the end of next month. 

Clark Gregg, an actor, director and screenwriter best known for his work playing Phil Coulson in “Avengers” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe show “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” picketed outside Amazon Studios in Culver City, where some striking workers had modified Amazon Prime’s logo to “Amazon Crime” on their signs.

“We went from a system that had transparency and Nielsen ratings, it had residuals,” Gregg said. “But then with the streaming model, it’s, ‘We’re not going to tell you how many people are watching this.’ We need residuals to survive in the downtime.”

“All the actors I know that work a lot, and the ones that don’t work as often, all feel that it’s now or never,” said actress Susan Sarandon in New York City. 

Outside the Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix offices in Manhattan, Anthony Rapp marched alongside his partner and their 7-month-old son. Rapp, one of the original cast members of the Broadway show “Rent,” has been a SAG member for 42 years.

Some of his personal sticking points in contract negotiations, he said, were adjusting wages for inflation and pushing for higher caps on pension and health contributions. 

“You know, we’re not talking about the 1%, we’re not talking about the Tom Cruises of the world,” Rapp said. 

Actor friends Katie Locke O’Brien and Bonnie Discépolo marched together on a picket line outside of Sony Studios in Los Angeles. Discépolo, an actress who has had minor parts in projects like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and the TV show “Chicago Med,” said when she first moved to Los Angeles more than a decade ago, she was able to support herself through acting work.

“As residuals have decreased, as the amount of money that we earn long term has decreased, I’ve had to get multiple support jobs,” she said. 

“What people have to understand is it’s not just affecting actors and writers,” said Jerry Weil, an actor, director and visual-effects artist in Los Angeles. Weil said he was laid off after production shut down on a project in January due to the impending writers’ strike. 

Many of the picketers Friday were working actors for whom having to take on side jobs to make ends meet isn’t uncommon.

Some actors said they were alarmed by the studios’ proposals on the use of artificial intelligence in their work.

“When the strike started, AI wasn’t even on my radar,” said Robin Schiff, a producer for “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” and “Emily in Paris,” referring to the writers’ strike. “And it’s all anybody wants to talk about.” 

Some actors said that they started saving after the WGA went on strike, anticipating that they would eventually do the same. Some said they had enough money from residuals or recent jobs to last at least a few months. But others said if the strike stretched on into the fall, they would have to consider taking on more side gigs. Seibert has some money saved from two completed projects waiting to be released, but her friends discussed the possibility of having to get another “survival job.”

“I’m able to afford to save the next month or two,” she said. “Once we hit September, probably mid-September, I’ll have to consider.”

“A bunch of people were already working extra jobs before this,” said David Woo, a SAG member for 14 years who has appeared in an episode of “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens” and used to work part-time as a rock-climbing instructor. 

“I’d rather not wear this shirt on Labor Day,” he added, gesturing to the T-shirt reading “SAG-AFTRA Strong” issued to picketers, “but I will if I have to.”

Write to Ashley Wong at [email protected] and Suryatapa Bhattacharya at [email protected]