Breaking Baz: Empty Red Carpet For London Premiere Of ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Amid Strikes; Stars Absent, Writer-Director Poses With Back To Camera
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Matthew López, who won the Best Play Tony Award in 2020 for his drama The Inheritance, was at the BFI Imax theater in London’s Waterloo on Thursday night for the premiere of Prime Video’s romantic comedy feature Red, White & Royal Blue, which he directed and adapted from Casey McQuiston’s bestselling novel.
WGA member López stationed himself in a holding room inside the building, well away from the red carpet, because, he said, “I’m on strike as a screenwriter but not as a playwright and not as a director.” His two stars Nicholas Galitzine (Purple Hearts, Cinderella) and Taylor Zakhar Perez (The Kissing Booth 3, Minx) were not in attendance.
As members of SAG-AFTRA “they’re on strike,” López said. After our conversation, the filmmaker made his way into the Imax auditorium and addressed the audience as director of the film.
He noted Galitzine and Perez’s absence. ”They’re not here, of course, because they’re on strike,” he said. “And in solidarity we send our love to our actors, and you’ll see how amazing they are on the screen, and you’ll see how irreplaceable they are by AI.” Bbackstage earlier, he lamented that a director being there “without actors and screenwriters is pretty pitiful. … “So we need to sort this strike out.
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