“There seems to be no real negotiations here,” a SAG-AFTRA member says about talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to avert a possible actors strike in Hollywood. Issues revolving around artificial intelligence may be the main sticking point–and perhaps one that will ultimately prove to be unresolvable.
“Actors see Black Mirror’s ‘Joan Is Awful’ as a documentary of the future, with their likenesses sold off and used any way producers and studios want.” The union member is referring to the opening episode of the latest season of the Charlie Brooker-created satire starring Salma Hayek and Annie Murphy. “We want a solid pathway. The studios countered with ‘trust us’ – we don’t”, he says.
As the Writers Guild of America (WGA) before it, the 160,000-strong actors union wants clear and strong assurances and guarantees in terms of the deployment, reach and scope of AI in the industry for its members. The writers strike started on May 2, 2023, and is now the largest interruption to American television and film production. It continues as no agreement is near at this point.
The industry rightly sees the incursion of artificial intelligence into filmmaking as a watershed moment that could forever change the role of actors. If their likeness can be appropriated—essentially purchased once and then replicated digitally through AI technology– then their continued employment might become irrevocably jeopardized. Indeed, the very concept of a “career” as an actor could become a thing of the past.
Just as the invention of sound and the “talkies” redefined the role in the 1920s, acting is once again on the verge of being re-invented by the advances of technology.
Having just put a new set of proposals on the negotiating table, the AMPTP allegedly doesn’t want to discuss the potentially game-changing matter in any substantial way, various sources relate.
“The agreement with the DGA is a good basis for discussion,” a streamer executive said of the deal for AI “consultation” the guild made with the AMPTP and overwhelmingly ratified last month. “This is a town [built] on relationships. Only the whackjobs want to blow this up; they’re the ones stopping a deal,” he asserted.
The response from a well-established actress rebutted: “This is a power grab, pure and simple…We see what’s coming. They can’t pretend we won’t be used digitally or become the source of new, cheap, AI-created content for the studios.”
One insider also suggests that the emphasis on the technology in the labor talks may be masking other issues that executives would rather not discuss at all.
“What AI does is in these talks is allow the Meryl Streeps of the world and other high-profile union members to focus their attention on the fact of an underlying transformational change,” he warned. “It’s a straightforward-enough concept that people who ordinarily don’t get involved in labor relations can see this whole business model and where the business is going is bad. Bad for me, bad for everyone. And it becomes a rallying cry, but the issues run deeper than that.”
Originally set to lapse at midnight on June 30, the current contract was extended by both sides at the end of last month with less than six hours to go. Now the contract will expire at midnight PT on July 12.
With divisions over AI and issues like residuals running deep in the talks, it appears quite likely at this point that SAG-AFTRA’s members could be on strike by the morning of July 13.
The negotiations will continue behind closed doors and under media blackout under the leadership of Fran Drescher, known for starring in the lead role in the television sitcom The Nanny, but now president of the SAG-AFTRA union as of 2021.
However, it is obvious that the actors union is preparing for the worst, as during the past week, picket signs were being prepared and lists of volunteers were being set up, among other measures being put in place in anticipation of a strike.
On Monday union reps even spoke to some of the town’s leading PR folk on a conference call to discuss how a labor action would play out, no doubt trying to get ahead of the publicity storm that would ensue.
