SAG-AFTRA Picketers Respond to the ‘Best, Last, and Final’ AMPTP Offer: ‘Or What?’

As picketers signed in to the Warner Bros. lot on Monday, November 6, they were met with a strike update on the whiteboard: “NegCom worked til midnight last night & are sending a counter-proposal to the AMPTP’s ‘best, last, and final’ offer later today,” the sign read. “Flood the lines this week!! #UnionStrong”

The note echoed what SAG-AFTRA’s social media account posted at nearly midnight PT on Sunday night, as the negotiating committee spent the weekend receiving the studios’ latest offer—which, yes, the AMPTP dubbed as their “last, best, and final”—and coming up with a response to the latest proposal.

And actors showed up to the line, including Amy Acker, Jimmy Carp, Michael Chiklis, Michael Cudlitz, Garret Dillahunt, Merrin Dungey, Rick Gonzalez, Alicia Hannah-Kim, Mary McCormack, Ana Ortiz, Danny Pino, Sebastian Roché, Jeri Ryan, Brooke Smith, Todd Stashwick, Michael Grant Terry, Lesley Ann Warren, and Rebecca Wisocky.

“This weekend, [my thought was], ‘I think this is gonna be great, I felt very confident about [a deal],’” Terry tells Give Me My Remote. “And then this morning, I was like, I need to go [to the picket line]. I’m walking by myself… I was like, I just need to walk this out and be of support on the lines because it’s a roller coaster.”

“I think everyone was frustrated with the best last and final [phrasing],” he continues. “It’s like, or what? There’s no best, last, and final. This is a negotiation. And they’ve chosen to show up, what, six times to the tables? They don’t really get to dictate that. I’m frustrated…but I’m really proud of our guild. I know people that are in the negotiating committee…they put up a really good fight.”

With the guild on the verge of sending their response back to the studios, McCormack—who was walking the picket lines with Warren, who played her IN PLAIN SIGHT on-screen mother—acknowledges this is all a part of the negotiations. “We will counter with a fair deal and it’s in their court to accept it or not,” she says. “And if they don’t, then we’ll just be out here every single day.”

“This is my community and I respect and love them,” she continues. “I think they’re out here for a good cause—we’re out here for a fair deal. We’re not looking for more than our fair share. And I think it’s important that every actor shows up and does their part.”

Both Terry and McCormack point to AI and residuals/fair pay as issues they’re concerned about for the industry’s long-term health.

“The show that I’m most known for is a show that I was never a series regular on—because studios didn’t want to pay to make us series regulars,” Terry says of his nine seasons on BONES. “So this is pretty passionate for me. I spent eight years on that show and then didn’t work as an actor for three years. And that’s not really any way to survive, at all. So it’s not just me, it’s about everybody else who’s been fighting this long. It’s time for actors to grab their fair share of everything. Things have changed drastically…the business model of streaming, it just doesn’t work anymore for what actors should be paid.”

Terry also notes AI is a “life-changing thing for everybody,” and “residuals, I’m pretty passionate about just simply because I have a lot of friends who’ve done a season on the show—which should be life-changing for them, for their career—and then not work for two years—and that season doesn’t pay for the two years they’re not working.”

“Yet that show is still airing on Netflix over and over and over again; they’re seeing nothing from that,” he continues. “COVID changed everything, streaming changed everything. They’re trying to have us fit into their box, and yet still maintain the massive amount of money that they make without sharing any of that profit… they’re getting away with robbery at this point. As a working actor, we rely on those residuals and now they’re not sharing in it.”

“I really trust the negotiating committee,” McCormack adds. “Obviously AI is a huge concern.  What we’re paid on all the streaming sites is a huge concern. There’s a lot of little points that are very important, especially to certain parts of our community. So I put all of my faith and all my trust in our committee. I really think they’ve done a great job and they’ve been really brave. I back them as long as this fight needs to go on; I’m behind them.”

Actors on the picket line reunited with old friends and got support from writers and crew members. (The WGA strike ended in September; IATSE’s contract is up next year.) “[Picketing has] made me fall in love with my acting community again,” McCormack notes. “I love seeing all these faces. I love these people, these storytellers. And I hope everyone can understand that this is a fight that’s not just about actors. This is a fight that’s about all our crew members, who are also suffering—they’re up next and we’re gonna have their back, too. And this is about labor in general. Everyone deserves a fair wage.”

The group also got a bit of love from Milk Jar Cookies owner Courtney Cowan, who was passing out cookies to picketers on the line. “I was a part of the entertainment industry for 12 years before I opened Milk Jar Cookies,” she says, noting they’re also offering discounts to SAG and WGA members in their stores. “So I have a lot of friends and colleagues [on strike]. And just as a person, I support fair wages and I am very proud to be out here. It’s nice when people recognize the brand. It’s also great when they don’t know us and [we get to] introduce ourselves…I’m very glad to know that they know they have the support of the local businesses.”

Things got a bit chaotic on the line in the final hour of picketing when members of the NegCom showed up to support the picketers. After getting a rousing round of applause, the group spoke with SAG-AFTRA members who had questions about where things stood.

In a quiet moment post-group Q&A, Michelle Hurd (who serves as SAG-AFTRA’s National Vice President, Los Angeles) acknowledges to GMMR that “the support that we get whenever we come out here on the picket lines is unbelievably inspiring.”

“It keeps us strong, it keeps us focused,” she says. “I hope that everybody in the AMPTP—and the CEOs—understands that our actors are out here, and they are literally willing to stand here strong until we get a fair contract, which means the ability to make a living wage doing the thing that we love, which is storytelling.”

Hurd, who has been picketing in Los Angeles and New York, has met (and reunited with) a ton of actors on the lines. “It’s a beautiful thing,” she says. “But that is the beautiful thing about acting, about this industry—we are all brothers and sisters. I’m a native New Yorker; I split my time between LA and New York. So I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to picket on the east and the west coast sides. Everybody’s so passionate, so energized, so focused, so supportive.” 

“I’ll tell you, I feel incredibly responsible,” she continues. “And that’s a heavy weight. The whole entire negotiating committee, we all feel the weight of the responsibility of the 160,000 people [in the union] who have put us in this position. And we are gonna fight as hard as we can to come to a great deal, as best as we can.”

And with the ball about to be back in the studios’ court, Hurd echoes that it’s “one day longer, one day stronger” for the actors as they wait to find out what’s next.

“Keep showing up,” she says. “Any people who have not walked on the line yet, please come out. Those of you who are really recognizable, please come out. Please take a moment. Take an hour, take 45 minutes, take 20 minutes. Just show up. Show your support. This is your union, too.”

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