Actors Express Hope and Optimism as SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP Prepare to Resume Negotiations

Fresh off the weekend’s news that SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP would resume their negotiations, hundreds of striking actors and supporters hit the picket line outside the Warner Bros. lot.

“I feel like being on the picket line is the most basic thing your union can ask of you, frankly,” Jon Cryer tells Give Me My Remote. “And in Los Angeles, the picket lines are pleasant. I get to see a lot of great people that I haven’t seen in ages. The support on the street is amazing. You can hear the cars honking—I have people on the inside [who] are telling me that the honking really does drive everybody crazy.”

As a bonus? “I get my steps in—this thing has been a boon to my knees,” he jokes. “But, obviously we have an obligation to our union. I’m so grateful for all the things that the union’s done for me and it’s just a chance to pay them back.” 

Among those showing support on the line: GHOSTS’ Rose McIver and Rebecca Wisocky; MIDNIGHT MASS’ Annabeth Gish and Michael Trucco; QUANTUM LEAP’s Caitlin Bassett; THE WEST WING vets Bradley Whitford and Joshua Malina; Diana-Maria Riva, Gina Torres, and an impromptu Latinas Acting Up showcase; plus, ER’s Noah Wyle. (It was also a Taylor Swift-themed day, with mini-dance parties breaking out near one of the speakers.)

“I’m very hopeful,” Bassett says of the studios returning to the negotiating table. “I’m very hopeful that they’re coming to finish the job.”

Gish echoes the sentiment: “I am optimistic,” she says. “I know there’s a lot of passion and a lot of opinion. I know people are suffering; this is a hard time for all of us. And I think it’s imperative that we make a deal—but make the right deal that is protective of all of our forward-looking needs.”

The last round of negotiations between the union and the studios occurred in early October, with the studios walking away on October 11.

“I hope they understand we’re prepared to keep doing this,” Cryer says. “I think everybody kind of thought of SAG as an afterthought at the AMPTP. And we’re not. We won’t be an afterthought. We have real issues. Our contract is arguably more complicated than the writers’ contract. I think a lot of people expected that the AMPTP was done pulling dumb PR stunts. But, alas! They were not. So we’re back and we’re prepared to keep doing this.”

The strike passed its 100-day mark over the weekend, making it the second Hollywood labor action to hit that mark this year. (The WGA strike, which concluded last month, lasted 148 days.) “It has been long and arduous,” Gish acknowledges. “But very important to be doing. I think we’re holding strong. You know, it’s a big moment for labor in our country. And there’s nothing that I think is more important [to be] fighting for.”

“Obviously, the vast majority of our guild don’t get the enormous payouts that the people who star on television shows like myself get,” Cryer says. “This is a strike to take care of the entirety of the people in the union. People who star on television shows can afford armies of lawyers and agents and managers; they’re gonna do fine. It’s everybody else who the union has to help, and that’s what they’re there for.”

And while much of the industry has changed in recent years—specifically with the addition of streaming—Cryer notes that isn’t actually abnormal for Hollywood. “It’s interesting, because I was talking with Peter Roth, who was a former head of television at Warner Bros., and we tried to go over the periods of show business…trying to figure out was there ever a period when the entertainment industry was not in enormous flux? And there wasn’t,” he says. “The longest we could find was the period when television went to color and you had the three networks. That was it. Once you had Fox and DVRs and VCRs, all hell broke loose. So, we’re used to this, to some degree. You just have to take how the industry changes in stride and figure it out. But these are the moments when we’re figuring it out—this is how we figure it out. You’re seeing it happening in the streets.”

But even so, both Bassett and Gish point to AI as one of their main concerns about this negotiation cycle.

“I think AI is probably the most existential [threat], because not only is it about our performances now, but it’s about people who passed, it’s about the next generation,” Bassett says. “You shouldn’t just be able to order some mix of whatever star. It’s actors. If you lose the reality of that and the reality of the time that they live in and the people that they are, you’re losing what’s special about it.”

“The AI component is terrifying, but important to get in front of,” Gish adds. “It’s here, and so we can’t turn away or ignore it.”

“But also the residuals, the compensation for what is our work [is a factor],” she continues. ”The payments for what is essentially our creative offering…we are all a passionate bunch of artists and dreamers and storytellers. We’re fighting for what’s right.”

As such, when the strike inevitably ends, Bassett encourages fans to continue to engage with shows and films. “Once we go back to work, come watch our shows, come watch what we make,” she says, noting fans can support the strike effort on social media, too. “There’s a lot of people—and not just actors or writers, but crew members—that really need their jobs back. So please support the industry when it comes back. And we’ll see you out there.”

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