Sean Penn, Backing WGA Strike, Says AI Dispute Is ‘A Human Obscenity’ At Cannes Film Festival
etcanada.comSean Penn strongly backed the current Hollywood screenwriters strike while speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying the dispute over artificial intelligence is “a human obscenity.” Penn addressed the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike in a press conference for his new film, “Black Flies”, director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s harrowing, gritty drama about New York paramedics.
Asked about the strike, Penn said “the industry has been upending the writers and actors and directors for a very long time.” “There’s a lot of new concepts being tossed about including the use of AI.
It strikes me as a human obscenity for there to be pushback on that from the producers,” said Penn, a veteran writer-director in addition to being an actor. READ MORE: Tony Awards Won’t Be Televised Due To Writers’ Strike Film and TV screenwriters earlier this month began striking after talks with producers broke off.
The WGA is seeking better pay, new contracts for the streaming era and safeguards against the use of AI-scripted work-arounds. “The first thing we should do in these conversations is change the Producers Guild and title them how they behave, which is the Bankers Guild,” added Penn. “It’s difficult for so many writers and so many people industry-wide to not be able to work at this time.
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