A couple weeks back, the Hollywood actors union — SAG-AFTRA — went on strike, joining Hollywood writers who had already been on strike for awhile. Among other things, both groups are looking for better pay and increased job security in an industry that has consistently cut away at those things, along with regulations on the use of AI in entertainment.
By and large, the strikes have been supported by members, particularly in light of reports that studios executives are planning to starve out the striking workers while they themselves pull down tens of millions of per year; they are kinda giving supervillain vibes, which can be very energizing to a resistance movement.
However, not all union members are behind the strike…
Arrow star Stephen Amell: “I do not support striking. I don’t.”
Speaking at GalaxyCon this past weekend, Arrow star Stephen Amell spoke out against it. “I support my union, I do, and I stand with them,” he said. “I do not support striking. I don’t.”
I think that it is a reductive negotiating tactic, and I find the entire thing incredibly frustrating. And I think that the thinking as it pertains to shows like the show that I’m on that premiered last night, I think it’s myopic.
The show he’s talking about is Heels, which dropped its second season premiere on Starz last week. According to Entertainment Weekly, under the rules of the strike, actors are technically allowed to show up at cons like GalaxyCon, but they can’t promote any work they did for studios against which actors are striking. So that’s probably why he doesn’t say “Heels,” but rather, “the show that I’m on that premiered last night.”
Stephen Amell finds the actors strike “incredibly frustrating”
And that does sound frustrating…but at the same time, the ability of ordinary actors to make a living off performing is in real danger, and if the actors aren’t willing to strike in order to force the studios to make some kind of a deal, I’m not sure what other tools they really have. I mean, do we really think studios will refrain from replacing actors with robots if the actors just ask nicely enough?
At the end of the day, actors like Amell will be fine no matter what happens; he played the lead character on a popular TV series for eight straight seasons, so we can assume he won’t go hungry waiting for the studios to come to the table. The strike is more about securing decent lives for smaller actors who live job to job.
And I don’t want this to just be about condemning Amell; it is weird to not even be able to name the show you’re in that’s currently airing on TV, and maybe he was speaking out of frustration. We don’t know if he made further comments clarifying how he can be against strikes but for the union, an idea that seems to be in tension with itself. For now, the strikes go on, whether Oliver Queen likes it or not.
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