Stunt Performer Mike Massa Sets Himself on Fire for SAG-AFTRA Strike Picket

By Adam Barnhardt

Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA held its largest rally of its ongoing work stoppage and shortly thereafter, things got real fiery, real fast. At another event, stunt performer Mike Massa took the stage to rally picketers in the most Hollywood way possible: by setting himself on fire. Massa, Harrison Ford's stunt double on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was part of a rally at Stunts Unlimited and quickly wowed those in the audience with his stunt.

"We are tired of being burned by the AMPTP," Elena Sanchez shared on Instagram alongside video of Massa walking on a truck trailer whilst on fire.  Massa himself added, "Proving Stunt People would rather get burned for real than the Metaphorical getting burned by the studios."

How long will the actors' strike last?

There's still really no end in sight for either the ongoing actors' or writers' strikes. A major part of the negotiations, according to SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, is the continued studios' insistence on unsupervised usage of artificial intelligence. During a SAG-AFTRA press conference last week, Crabtree-Ireland revealed the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) made a proposal to SAG-AFTRA that would have film and television extras' likenesses be used in perpetuity with only one day's payment in exchange.

"This 'groundbreaking' AI proposal that they gave us yesterday: they 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 their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation," Crabtree-Ireland revealed. "So if you think that's a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again."

The biggest names in Hollywood have spoken out against the technology, with the likes of Christopher Nolan saying studios needed accountability if they were to continue using AI.

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"The rise of companies in the last 15 years bandying words like algorithm – not knowing what they mean in any kind of meaningful, mathematical sense – these guys don't know what an algorithm is," Nolan shared. "People in my business talking about it, they just don't want to take responsibility for whatever that algorithm does."

He continued, "Applied to AI, that's a terrifying possibility. Terrifying ... Not least because, AI systems will go into defensive infrastructure ultimately. They'll be in charge of nuclear weapons. To say that that is a separate entity from the person wielding, programming, putting that AI to use, then we're doomed. It has to be about accountability. We have to hold people accountable for what they do with the tools that they have."

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