The contract between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), representing 160,000 actors and personalities, and major television and film studios and streamers represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) was set to expire at midnight of June 30, but the parties have agreed to an extension.
SAG wrote in a letter to its members that negotiations would continue with a July 12 11:59 p.m. PT deadline.
“No one should mistake this extension for weakness. We see you. We hear you. We are you,” the letter read.
Streaming residuals and the use of AI are key issues in this negotiation, as it has been with the Writers Guild of America, representing some 11,500 writers who have been on strike since May, unable to reach an agreement with major studios.
At stake for the studios already is the fall slate of programming, and possibly the cancellation or delay of countless productions.
Actors Ready to Strike
On June 5, an overwhelming majority of voting SAG members voted to strike if an agreement was not reached when the contract expired. SAG, which had agreed to a media blackout during contract renegotiations, released a video on June 24 showing the negotiating team and assured members.
“We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you. We’re standing strong and we are going to achieve a seminal deal,” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and its TV/Theatrical Contracts Negotiating Committee.
Three days later, Rolling Stone was the first to report a letter supposedly signed by more than 300 Hollywood actors, including names like Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Liam Neeson and Marisa Tomei.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed key organizers were Amy Schumer, Paul Scheer, and Paul Downs, and the letter began on a shared Google document where numerous anonymous signatories began adding names as the letter was made known among SAG members. Soon, the 300 names burgeoned to 2,000, but it has not been confirmed that the names match the actual signatories.
