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Stars come out for pay: Duff, Bacon join LA picket lines

Hilary Duff, Bob Odenkirk and Kevin Bacon are among Hollywood stars who joined fellow actors on the picket lines in Los Angeles in New York amid the largest industry strike for 60 years.

Jul 18, 2023, updated Jul 18, 2023
 US actors Tien Tran, Hilary Duff and Francia Raisa join picketers outside Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles.  American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) members joined Writers Guild of America members who have been on strike since early May over better wages and working conditions.  EPA/CAROLINE BREHMAN

US actors Tien Tran, Hilary Duff and Francia Raisa join picketers outside Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) members joined Writers Guild of America members who have been on strike since early May over better wages and working conditions. EPA/CAROLINE BREHMAN

Strike action took place outside major studios, including Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount and Netflix on Monday, though two were cut short due to extreme heat.

Action began on Friday morning after contract negotiations between actors’ union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actor’s Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) broke down.

Lizzie McGuire star Duff was pictured out picketing in Los Angeles on Monday, later posting a selection of pictures from outside Paramount Pictures studios.

“Out there … with my girls. We stand with our union! Let’s gooooooo,” she captioned the post.

Community star Danny Pudi was also outside Paramount studios, following in the footsteps of his co-star Jim Rash, who attended on Friday.

“We are here supporting the union in working on a fair contract,” he said. “(There’s) a lot of issues on the table, it’s good to be out here to support the union.”

Award-winning Better Call Saul actor Odenkirk shared a photo of himself outside Warner Bros studios, with Kids actress Rosario Dawson also making an appearance at Paramount.

“I’ve been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1988, and we have to do this now, and we have to do this right so that we don’t have to do this for another 20 years,” Odenkirk said.

“Let’s do it right, hang in there.”

Bacon, who starred in the 1984 hit movie Footloose, was pictured in New York, where actors also picketed the offices of HBO, Amazon, Warner Bros, Netflix, Paramount and NBC Universal on Monday.

“Walking the line in solidarity with my fellow SAG-AFTRA members,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing a video of himself chanting with other union members.

Action in Los Angeles was due to take place outside studios from 9am to 1pm local time, but the end time was brought forward to noon due to hot weather.

Approximately 160,000 actors are now on strike across the US, joining the 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who walked out on May 2.

It is the first time both unions have been on strike since 1960.

During the strike, actors will not film new projects or promote their films at junkets, premieres, awards shows or conventions, including the 2023 San Diego Comic Con, which is due to begin on Thursday.

On Saturday the global premiere of new Disney film Haunted Mansion went ahead at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, but without stars Owen Wilson, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tiffany Haddish.

The cast of Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer walked out of the London premiere last week as news of the impending strike broke, and planned junkets for films including Barbie have also been affected.

Producers of independent films could be granted waivers to continue shooting despite the strike, as long as they are operating outside the studio system.

Marvel star Mark Ruffalo was among the high-profile actors to voice support for such waivers, and possible sharing of profits from successful independent films.

The contract between the union and the AMPTP, which represents the major film studios, TV networks and streaming giants, expired after negotiators failed to reach an agreement over a number of issues including pay and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

The union said actors face an “existential threat to their livelihoods” with the rise of generative AI technology and the threat of unregulated use.

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