The President of the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG-AFTRA), Fran Dreschergave an impassioned live interview with Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night, where they discussed the strike that has paralyzed Hollywood.
Drescher lashed out at studio executives and their bargaining body, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The head of the union also criticized the executive director of Disney, Bob Igerwho called the actors’ demands “unrealistic” on July 13 while attending an exclusive gathering of media moguls in Sun Valley hosted by an investment bank.
“He got his foot in this so badly that you realize none of the other CEOs are opening their mouths,” Drescher said. “There he is sitting in his designer clothes and he just hopped on his private jet at the billionaire’s camp telling us we’re not realistic when he makes $78,000 a day. How do you deal with someone like that who is so deaf? You are an ignorant? I don’t understand. We need someone with character and courage to go into those boardrooms and say, ‘Listen, we’re doing it all wrong.’ Why are we doing this anyway? We are in business with these people. They are the ones we are building our business around.’”
Drescher also described the studio bargaining committee as lacking in empathy.
“I was looking even at the people across the table in the room, and I was thinking, ‘Who are you? she said of an AMPTP negotiator. “‘Maybe he’s a great family man, maybe he donates, maybe he supports his community, but his job is to screw me and my members’… You have to be consistent in your life, with the way you you treat other people.”
Drescher said the last thing he told the studio’s bargaining committee before the strike: “Well, now they haven’t been able to make deals with two unions, congratulations, we’re leaving!”
Historic Hollywood strike
The Writers Guild of America has been on strike for more than two months, after calling a work stoppage on May 2. On July 13, SAG-AFTRA also called a strike, its approximately 160,000 members making history as this is the first double strike. of actors and writers since 1960 . The last writers’ strike was in 2007-08, lasted 100 days and cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion. Much higher numbers are expected this time now that both unions have halted work.
WGA and SAG-AFTRA have many similar goals, with both organizations fighting for higher salaries, increased broadcast compensation, and protections against AI invasion.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
