Several celebrities, including Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk, S3x and the City’s Cynthia Nixon, and Hollywood legend Jamie Lee Curtis, posted on Instagram to show their support for the strike.
Picketing will start outside of Netflix’s California offices on Friday morning and then move to Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney.
The major studios have put out what they refer to as a “ground-breaking proposal” to address concerns about the use of AI that would safeguard performers’ digital likenesses and demand their permission before any adjustments or uses of digital copies in performances.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) offered, but the union rejected it.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and principal negotiator for the SAG, deemed it intolerable.
They suggest that our background actors should be allowed to be scanned, receive payment for a single day’s work, and their firm should own that scan of their picture, their likeness, and should be free to use it forever, he said. “If you believe that is a novel idea, I advise you to reconsider.”
The AMPTP stated that the strike was “certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life”.
According to the union’s statement, “the union regrettably chose a path that will result in financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
