Dispatches From The Picket Lines: Strikers Rip Studios At First NYC Rally Since SAG-AFTRA Talks Broke Down; “It Tactics”, Says David Simon
deadline.comThis is Day 92 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. At the first actors to picket after Wednesday night’s breakdown of their talks with the studios and streamers, SAG-AFTRA members in New York City said that they were disappointed by the setback but “holding strong” to their demands.
Striking actors who gathered Thursday outside Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery offices also cheered the announcement of bipartisan legislation in the U.S.
Senate to protect them from artificial intelligence. Writers joining them on the picket line after ratifying their own contract this week urged the actors to stay strong. “It’s tactics,” The Wire creator David Simon told Deadline, speaking of the studios’ decision to suspend the talks and criticize SAG-AFTRA for demanding a share of studio profits. “They say you can’t have something and you’ll never get something, and ‘DGA settled for this and you don’t understand our industry.’ They say this shit, and then a month later — if you hold fast — suddenly it’s on the table.” RELATED: SAG-AFTRA Accuses Studios Of “Bully Tactics” & Misrepresentation Over Revenue-Sharing Proposal Costs As Negotiations Crater “And so we’re at that moment again, for SAG,” the veteran WGA negotiating committee member said, referencing the point in August when negotiations stalled out between the writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers before a deal eventually was reached.
Simon added a parting shot at the AMPTP: “Their playbook is always the same.” Actors Anthony Rapp and Jack Mulcahy, members of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee, told Deadline that they, too, see recent history repeating. “In a way I’m not surprised that they’re doing the same thing with us,” Rapp said. “What I am a little
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