Hollywood on strike, Day 1: Pickets of hundreds of actors and screenwriters take over the studios

It’s official: Hollywood is on strike. There’s no turning back. At 12 noon on Friday, the Actors’ Union (SAG-AFTRA) announced the announcement it had made hours earlier: In the absence of an agreement to extend its contract with the studios, its 160,000 members decided to call it quits. And they’ve clearly demonstrated that, being used in half a dozen studios in Los Angeles and also in New York.

The pickets (pickets in English because they always line up and people are constantly walking) could be seen and felt amid the heat wave in Los Angeles, which topped 31 degrees this Friday, a very high temperature for the city. But he didn’t give in to the thousands of people who screamed, ran, and blew their proclamations and whistles outside the studio doors. The Netflix offices on Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood were busiest in the mornings as the visible faces of the union, with its chairman Fran Drescher, arrived at around 9:20am. , at the helm, followed by his discreet and experienced right-hand man, chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.

THE KEYS TO THE STRIKE IN HOLLYWOOD

The actress, known from the 1990s series The Nanny, was undoubtedly the star of massive demonstrations, with hundreds of people walking up and down the studio doors, including many screenwriters who, after two months on strike, wanted to support their teammates, namely with the cars constantly beeping as a sign of support on his way, in which, however, familiar faces were missing. The presence of actors as they were when famous writers like Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon or Pete Davidson went on strike, bringing them pizzas. In the first hours of the strike and already in the middle of the holiday season, there wasn’t much to see that was famous. At Disney headquarters, for example, he was part of the cast of the series This Is Us.

Strike in HollywoodPickets outside the Netflix studios in Los Angeles, California. MIKE BLAKE (Portal)

But Drescher made up for it with his enthusiasm and charisma. Pure attraction for the American media, which since yesterday does not stop looking for her juicy statements in fiery tone when she arrived at the doors of Netflix early in the morning, she reiterated how disappointed she was with the studies, but also that you was “extremely excited” about the support she received from all parts of the world. Drescher has managed to insist on an idea that will help him avoid the possible resentment that ordinary citizens might feel for this strike: that this is a stop of normal people who do not earn millions of euros, but normal people . A message to be conveyed from all sides to prevent what looks like a war between the elites. As Actress Caroline Renard successfully tweeted: “As a member of SAG-AFTRA, you must earn $26,000 per year [23.000 euros] to qualify for health insurance. 87% of union members do not reach this annual amount.”

With almost no voice and wearing a cap that qualifies her as a member of the negotiating team, Drescher is not afraid to criticize the industry’s most powerful. When Disney CEO Bob Iger asserted that the actors’ claims were “unrealistic,” she put those statements into perspective by the head of the multinational (who will make $45 million in 2021, $15 million more in 2022, and plans to cut 7,000 jobs ). ) as “disgusting and tactless”.

Drescher was accompanied by part of the team that accompanies her in the negotiations, including some well-known faces such as Frances Fisher, Ben Whitehair, Michelle Hurd, Joely Fisher or Sean Astin, who played Sam Sagaz Gamgei in The Lord of the Rings. . Speaking to the media at the union’s second stop that morning, outside the gates of Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue, Astin explained that the interpreters went on strike “in all humility,” but they were described as “as ‘uncivilized’ is a great lack of respect”: “It is the audience that really appreciates the actors.”

Strike in HollywoodMembers of the Writers’ and Actors’ Unions demonstrate in front of a giant poster promoting the film ‘Barbie’ at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, north of Los Angeles, California, on the first day of the actors’ strike. ALLISON DINNER (EFE)

The strike posters, some black with the SAG logo, many others personalized with photos, drawings and messages, read proclamations such as “No contract”. [colectivo]“There are no actors”, “We are irreplaceable”, “You need us”, “Without actors there are no superheroes”, “Make us an offer we cannot complete” or “Give the actors their happy endings “. One of them was carried by Katherine Ko, accompanied in the cart by her husband and daughter of a few months. She came to the screening during her lunch break because, like so many others, she has a second job alongside her work as an actress. “Because if you don’t, it’s not sustainable,” he explained. “This is important and now is the time.”

Groups of friends, single people, families with babies and children, writer-actor couples… and also actor-actress couples like the couple formed by Karyna Shackelford and Chris Pecchenino protested in the studios. At Paramount, the couple complained that they came here because of what they described as selfishness on the part of the studios. “Like most of us, a lot of us have two jobs, there are people who have to drive Uber cars … The middle class is declining all over the world, including ours,” lamented Shackelford, an interpreter and screenwriter, who assured them will go to protests as often as possible, probably a couple of times a week, “because the bills have to be paid.” “We don’t want to go on strike,” said Pecchenino, “but we have to.” “If the musicians have royalties, we should they also have the actors, because with our work, our voice, our body, we create characters that otherwise wouldn’t exist,” the couple explained. She went one step further: “People need to cancel their subscriptions on platforms. We must start now. Money… It’s the only thing that worries them.”