The Picket Lines Grow - ACTORS STRIKE

At a glance, the Writer and the Actor are very different creatures. Or at least their stereotypes are: the Solitary Writer vs the Gregarious Actor. Neither is entirely true of course. But maybe a little, maybe sometimes. Right now, as actors have gone on strike and shared their stories and grievances, the similarities between writers and actors are many. 

  • Like writers, actors have seen their base pay steadily drop over the years;

  • Like writers, actors are faced with an evolving gig economy;

  • Like writers, actors’ residuals have shrunk to almost nothing; 

  • Like writers, actors are wary or worse regarding the impact AI will have;

  • Like writers, actors know and accept they are trying to succeed in a brutally competitive high risk field;

  • Like writers, most actors need to work multiple jobs. 

  • Like writers, actors take financial and existential risks in the name of exploring themselves and the human condition; they do their best to balance pragmatic realities like paying rent and with the more ethereal desire to share stories and create characters out of thin air; for the most part, they each know their path is a hard one in many ways but it’s the road chosen and they can’t complain.  Until now. Because it’s gotten stupid of late. And so…

  • Like writers, actors have drawn a line in the sand. 

We at Almanack Screenwriters stand with the SAG/AFTRA and WGA as they engage in this fight. And yes it’s a fight. Sure it’s a negotiation but it’s also a fight. When talking about business or contracts or negotiations, people sometimes say, “It’s not personal.” But this sure is personal. Getting paid fairly is personal; getting credit for your work is personal; the way you are treated by employers and the industry at large is personal.

Actors and writers have not simultaneously been on strike since 1960. That’s 63 years. There are approximately 160,000 actors in SAG/AFTRA and 20,000 writers in WGA. That’s a lot of regular hard working people refusing to do the thing they like to do more than anything else. We hope their collective voice will secure a more livable and humane industry for the creatives we claim to love.

Writers and Actors on the picket lines outside Paramount
Bill Gullo