Striking actors join picket lines as Hollywood shuts down
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Hollywood is facing its largest shutdown strike in 63 years.
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Picketers gather outside Paramount Pictures during a Writers Guild rally on July 13, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Picket lines formed outside Netflix and other entertainment headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday as Hollywood is experiencing its largest strike in 63 years.
Hundreds of strikers marched with banners down Sunset Boulevard, as well as at HBO, Amazon, and Paramount Studios, with passing motorists honking in solidarity.
Vera Cherny, 44, who has had roles in "The Americans" and "For All Mankind," told AFP that it was a historic moment, expressing that "We're in this for the long haul."
"It is time for us to lock down the contracts that are going to serve generations of actors to come. Just like they did in 1960."
The SAG-AFTRA union agreed on Tuesday to resort to a federal mediator in an attempt of reaching a last-minute agreement with Hollywood studios. Doing so would avert a second simultaneous strike in the entertainment industry.
On Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA said the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the group that negotiates on behalf of studios, "has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process," noting that the studio sources leaked the request for a federal mediator to the press before union representatives learned about it.
The union said it will maintain its strike deadline on Wednesday if a new labor deal is not reached by midnight that day.
The guild, which represents 160,000 performers, including A-list celebrities, said discussions on their demands for declining compensation and the danger presented by artificial intelligence had failed.
E.J. Arriola, 42, a TV actor called it a "bittersweet feeling," expressing sadness but pride at the same time.
