Now That A-Listers Ready to Sacrifice Their Riches, Will SAG Strike End Soon?

While this year has seen a slew of blockbuster premieres, such as Barbie, Oppenheimer, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it will probably go down in film and television primarily as the year when the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes disrupted Hollywood by bringing numerous projects to a grinding halt, with almost all getting delayed and some being canceled.

Fortunately, the Writers' Guild and the Producers' Association have recently reached an agreement, allowing writing for shows and movies to resume. However, the SAG-AFTRA union continues its strike. That means that even if scripts get written, actors won't resume work until the impasse is resolved. Given that it's been over three months since actors last worked, many are getting worn down by the protracted standstill. In response, several top-tier actors have proposed a potential resolution, but will it help end the strike?

A-Listers Are Willing to Give Away More

Although industry heavyweights like George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, and Emma Stone have more than enough money to weather out this work hiatus—they've already donated generously to the union to assist lesser-known actors—they are equally exasperated by a strike that seems to be making little progress. Thus, they are now willing to contribute a larger portion of their substantial earnings to the union to aid struggling peers.

By their calculations, this initiative could channel an additional $50 million annually to SAG-AFTRA over the next three years.

Furthermore, these prominent actors have suggested a plan for how streaming services could pay residuals in a way that would benefit primarily the lower-earning actors. While this proposal initially seemed promising in that it could help end the strike, it seems like it's not going to work after all.

Counterproductive in the Long Run

After carefully studying the proposal for several days, the actors' guild officials have politely declined it, asserting that it doesn't address the main problem they have with the producers' association.

'This generous concept is worthy of consideration, but it is in no way related to and would have no bearing on this present contract or even as a subject of collective bargaining. It is, in fact, prohibited by Federal labor law,' the SAG-AFTRA union officials responded in a letter to its members.'It also doesn't speak to the scale of the overall package.'

That means the actors' strike will continue for the foreseeable future, and audiences will have to wait for their favorite projects until the issue is resolved in a more comprehensive manner that satisfies the Actors' Guild.

Source: Deadline.