SAG Strike: Studios Wanted AI Background Actors

Hollywood is officially on pause. Two months after the Writers Guild of America went on strike, the Screen Actors Guild has begun a strike of their own. This comes just about half a day after SAG-AFTRA failed to reach a new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The SAG-AFTRA strike is already showing its ripple affects across the industry as the Oppenheimer cast walked out of their film’s world premiere once the strike officially went into effect. Minutes after news broke of the strike, SAG-AFTRA held a press conference where President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland detailed the situation.

One of the key issues that both the writers’ and actors’ guild and the studios were at odds on was the rise of artificial intelligence in Hollywood productions. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA wanted to put regulations in place to ensure protection from future AI-generated content.

Speaking during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland revealed AMPTP made a proposal to SAG-AFTRA that would have film and television extras’ likenesses be used in perpetuity.

“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 at the press conference. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”

This essentially means that if an actor plays a background role in a film or television production, the studio that produces that project can use the actor’s likeness in any future project without additional pay, not unlike how landscapes are digitally recreated for major motion-pictures.

SAG-AFTRA and the WGA being on strike simultaneously marks the first time that this has happened since 1960.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on the ongoing actors’ and writers’ strikes.

SAG-AFTRA’s Statement on Striking

“Yesterday our union celebrated the 90th anniversary of the incorporation of Screen Actors Guild,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator said during a press conference. “During our nearly century long existence we’ve fought for and achieved countless gains for working actors. Today, we embark on a new important chapter in our unions history. Earlier this morning, the SAG-AFTRA national board convened following four weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers in a meeting, because AMPTP remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers. SAG AFTRA as national board unanimously voted to issue a strike order against the studios and streamers.”