The Disruption Series: Are We Almost At The End?

 

If you have read this series to this point, you are fully aware of my frustration at the labor stoppage in Hollywood over the past several months.  If you have been reading the past two weeks, you know that this has boiled over into pure and unadulterated fury at SAG-AFTRA for walking away from the table less that two weeks ago.  My last piece – a satire/not satire – was the only way I look at this increasingly ludicrous situation with anything resembling sanity.

So when I saw that members of SAG-AFTRA had posted a statement of support that was signed by many prominent actors saying, among other things, ‘they would rather have no deal than a bad one’, I immediately saw red and was prepared to write yet another article denouncing a union that seems willing to burn its industry down to line its pockets.  Then I looked at the rest of the article. And I realize that I had forgotten two critical things: context and subtext.  I then used both to look at several of the events that have taken place since SAG-AFTRA went on strike and the last two weeks in particular.  And with that eye, I can now see what that statement means and how it may be the clearest sign we are truly in the end game of this strike.

In retrospect, it’s been clear for awhile that even the more prominent members of SAG-AFTRA have never been as committed to their unions actions as the WGA were. I’ve written several articles about this in this series, as to how members like Stephen Amell and Bill Maher (who is also an actor) have expressed reservations and that Drew Barrymore’s actions to start her show were no doubt built on her feelings as an actor. Several prominent actors, among them Willem Defoe and Adam Driver, have expressed their own doubts in veiled statements.

Seen in this context, the actions that SAG-AFTRA has taken over the last two weeks show that there have also been signs of rumbling among the rank and file.  I railed at how blind union heads Fran Drescher and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland seemed to be when they rejected the fact that a group of actors, led by George Clooney, had been prepared to offer $150 million to the table to bring this stoppage to a speedy end. In hindsight I so focused on the blindness of Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland that I ignored the significance of the gesture, both from a financial standpoint and just as an importantly what it said about the mood on the ground.  When actors such as Clooney are willing to donate this big a sum of money to negotiate with corporations, it shows that they are becoming frustrated with how the process is going and how eager they are for this to end.  I know how much Crabtree-Ireland’s dismissal of it infuriated me; I can’t imagine how much it infuriated Clooney and so many other actors.

I also publicly ridiculed SAG-AFTRA’ statement about Halloween costumes this week and again ignored the context.  Melissa Gilbert, a former SAG-AFTRA president, truly did think that this was a joke and the fact that such prominent stars as Ryan Reynolds and Mandy Moore either chose to ridicule it or express outrage at their union for making this is a priority shows just how much credibility the union sacrificed on this so called stand. That they chose to stand by it must have caused immense rumbling among the membership who had to have been infuriated that their union had spent time drafting this memo rather than negotiate a deal.

There have been further signs of rumbling in the past week, and that may very well have led to the next step that I missed – earlier this week, SAG-AFTRA did launch a counter-offer to the studios. The negotiators have been at the table on Thursday and SAG-AFTRA had reduced its demands from an increase in minimum rates from 11 percent to 9 percent. The studio’s rates are at 7 percent right now. The studio alliance has also made some upward mobility on other issues – they have moved from the 5% that they had insisted on for both the WGA and DGA up to 7 percent.  That’s a clear sign of forward momentum. That both sides have been locked in these positions for months and have shown momentum is a clear sign of progress.

It's also worth noting that both sides have a very clear motivation to avoid another breakdown in talks.  The studios have warned that summer blockbusters could be postponed and TV shows canceled if no deal is reached. The union sees this as an empty threat. However, its worth noting both sides do have a lot more to lose. For the studios, there is an increasing possibility that the 2024 season on network television could be completely wiped out, delivering a blow it my never recover from. There would also be damage to cable and streaming which as I have mentioned repeatedly have been struggling for awhile and may still have more troubling recovering from even when this strike is resolved.

The union also knows that the A-list members are growing restless, which is no doubt why this open letter was issued and signed by more than 3600 SAG-AFTRA members. It is meant to represent a statement of firm support for the committee by claiming it speaks for majority of the guild. And it looks like it speaks for the majority of the union. The problem, however, comes when you look at the people who’ve signed it – which I did.

Variety lists the major signatories as including Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo, Bryan Cranston, Jon Hamm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Maya Hawke. All impressive actors but its hard to look at them as big names. I grant there are some signatories I respect: Carrie Coon, Brooke Smith, DB Woodside, Ed Harris,  John Slattery, Lizzy Caplan, Pedro Pascal – but though they are all great actors, they are also, with the sole exception of Pascal, not major draws in the industry and with the exception of Tomei in film and Cranston and Louis-Dreyfus in TV – not major draws in their industry in awards.

You know who I don’t see on this list? Any A-Listers at all. There’s no Clooney or Pitt or Julia Roberts. There’s no Dwayne Johnson or Meryl Streep. There’s no Matthew McConaughey or Woody Harrelson. There’s no Jessica Chastain or Jennifer Lawrence, there isn’t a Brendan Fraser. None of the actors who won prizes from SAG-AFTRA this February were willing to sign this petition and they must have been asked. I did not see a performer whose job immediately depends on getting this strike resolved sign it. Most of the actors who did either are not famous enough for it to have to weight or are anonymous enough in the industry so that they thought they could risk it by signing. And I also don’t see Melissa Gilbert’s signature on it either. This is a statement of support for an Actors Union with no major names signing it.

This tells you one of two things: either the stars were asked and chose not to rather than risk their livelihoods or they were asked and chose not to sign because they agree with people like Clooney rather than the heads of the union. To do so would have given this statement more impact – don’t tell me it wouldn’t have meant more if Nicole Kidman or Jennifer Aniston hadn’t signed – and really shown support. The fact that no superstars were willing to give even a token statement of support to their union – when they were just as willing to the same on literally everything else – really tells you how much dissension there is going on behind the scenes.

As I said before I think we are entering the final stages of this long and protracted strike, if for no other reason than self-important ones. We are on the cusp of awards seasons and both sides want this to happen.  In this case, they have more of a reason than usual: they desperately need to make the fans who are doubtlessly by now infuriating with everybody for ruining their enjoyment of TV and movies forget all of this animus and make it little more than amusing anecdotes and the kind of powerful speeches you make it unions.  For SAG-AFTRA, they also need to get it done quickly perhaps as desperately as the studios do. The Union heads know they have frittered away almost all the goodwill they had not only with the media but with the rank and file given how absurd much of their statements since walking away from the bargaining table earlier this month have been. And Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland also know that if they walk away a second time, they will lose whatever remaining power they have within their unions and will no doubt end up being blamed for what happens next, no matter how many letters of support they get from one or two members of the cast of Stranger Things. (For the record, Hawke is the only member who signed and her role ended last year. )

So I will end this article on a note of cautious optimism that we may finally be getting to the end of this disastrous shitshow that has been the last six months. But a word of caution to SAG-AFTRA: I think you know how thin the ice you’re on is right now. People like me have been remarkably understanding but my patience is absolutely at a standstill. I might be able to forgive when you get back to work, but forgetting is going to be far harder. And as I said a week ago, you did still commit some horrible crimes and an appropriate punishment should be enacted.