Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are among more than three hundred high profile actors who signed a letter on Tuesday, June 27, urging SAG-AFTRA leadership to take a hard line in the negotiations for a new film and TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The letter, obtained by Deadline, states that while no one wants to bear the “incredible hardships” that a strike would bring to so many, they “are prepared to strike if it comes to that,” and “concerned by the idea that SAG-AFTRA members may be ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.”
Some of the letter’s other high profile signatories include Kevin Bacon, Quinta Brunson, Glenn Close, David Duchovny, Chelsea Handler, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lawrence, Bob Odenkirk, Mark Ruffalo, Meryl Streep, Rami Malek, Patton Oswalt, Sarah Polley, Parker Posey, Amy Schumer, Kyra Sedgwick, Chlöe Sevigny and Ben Stiller.
The guild is ostensibly in the final week of bargaining before the June 30 expiration of its current contract, and the letter comes days after SAG-AFTRA’s leaders told their members that negotiations have been “extremely productive” and that they “remain optimistic” that a fair deal can be reached with the AMPTP.
The signatories specifically called for a “seismic realignment” of minimum pay rates, streaming residuals and exclusivity provisions. The letter called for a transformation to self-taped audition practices and major regulation of artificial intelligence, making sure that the deal “protects not just our likenesses, but makes sure we are well compensated when any of our work is used to train A.I.”
The Writers Guild of America is on Day 57 of its strike against the AMPTP over its own film and TV contract.
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