By Abb Jones
The Reelness

First it was the writers. Now the film and television industry’s actors are striking too.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher delivered an impassioned speech in announcing the strike Thursday morning, after failing to reach an agreement with the trade association representing movie studios that include Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros and streaming services that include Netflix, Max and Hulu. Actors are seeking improvements in pay, working conditions and health and pension benefits, guardrails against the future use of artificial intelligence and more transparency from streaming services to ensure fairer residual payments. This is the first tandem strike by writers and actors since 1960.

“We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us. It is disgusting. Shame on them.” -Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA President

Disney CEO Bob Iger says these two strikes come at a terrible time, since the film and television industry still has not fully recovered from the COVID pandemic.

Should the two sides fail to reach an agreement, it will ensure further production delays on a slate of upcoming films and television shows – most already on pause due to the ongoing writers’ strike. Since May, late-night television talk shows have been shuttered and production has been suspended on shows such as The White Lotus, Hacks, The Last of Us and Stranger Things. On the film side,production halts have been reported by  Marvel on Blade, Deadpool 3 and the fourth Spider-Man film, with Paramount halting filming of Gladiator 2 and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2.