Hollywood stars join Screen Actors Guild’s strike

Since earlier today, over 160,000 performers in Los Angeles have stopped working in support of the screenwriters' strike, which has halted numerous television and film productions in the US. Several Hollywood actors such as Bob Odenkirk, Cynthia Nixon and Jamie Lee Curtis have even shown their support on social media.

Stars Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt left the premiere of Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" in London on Thursday night, as the strike was declared. 

According to the media, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) wants streaming platforms to grant better working conditions and profit splits with artistes. Meanwhile, the guild also wishes to ensure that the screen actors will not lose their jobs to 'digital replicas' such as computerised or AI generated faces and voices.

During the period of the strike, actors will not be appearing in films or promoting films they have already made.

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Speaking about AI generated voices and faces entering the entertainment industry, SAG's national executive director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, shared that it was unacceptable.

"They (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay, and their company should own that scan of their image, their likeness, and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity," he said. "If you think that's a ground-breaking proposal, I suggest you think again."

Fran Drescher, SAG's president, said, "What's happening to us is happening across all fields of labour. When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority, they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run."

As per media reports, the actors and screenwriters will be rallying in front of Netflix headquarters in California from Friday morning. Afterwards, they will move on to Paramount, Warner Bros, and Disney.

Meanwhile, a separate strike by 11,500 members of Writers Guild of America has already been going on for a while now.