A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
What has changed in the two years since screenwriters and actors went on strike against major Hollywood studios? Production stopped for nearly six months while the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA waited for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to cut contract deals. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on where things stand today.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: I'm standing outside Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, where, in the summer of 2023, screenwriters and performers held picket signs and protested. Among their demands, getting paid residuals for work that reappears on streaming platforms and protections from the use of artificial intelligence in productions.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Corporate greed has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho...
DEL BARCO: On one picket line, actor Seth Rogen complained to Sky News that the competing studios were taking too long to agree on new contracts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SETH ROGEN: These are people who hate each other, people who are in direct competition with one another. When this strike ends, they go back to being enemies. When this strike ends for us, we go back to being coworkers.
DEL BARCO: Rogen and his creative partner, Evan Goldberg, say the strike sparked some ideas for a satire of Hollywood they were developing. The comedy series they created, "The Studio," was just nominated for 23 Emmy Awards. Rogen stars as the head of the fictitious Continental Pictures.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE STUDIO")
ROGEN: (As Matt Remick) And I got into all this 'cause, you know, I love movies, but now I have this fear that my job is to ruin them.
DEL BARCO: Two years after the strikes, the film and TV industry continues to change. Even after contracts were signed, production never returned to pre-strike levels when streamers were ordering lots of content. Earlier this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors the studio continues to trim its production budget.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BOB IGER: Frankly, we've all admitted to ourselves that we lost a little focus by making too much and by consolidating a bit. And having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe it will result in better quality.
DEL BARCO: Cost-cutting by all the studios has meant a decline in TV and film productions. And since May of 2023, employment for actors nationally has dropped by 17%, and for writers, by 14%, according to the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy. The content boom created by the streaming wars may not have been sustainable, but Goldberg and Rogen told NPR the bust is painful.
EVAN GOLDBERG: People are still hurting. Like, it never fully got back to where it was. Eight out of 10 people are still feeling it, not having the same amount of work as they did before.
ROGEN: If actors and writers have been afforded much more rights, but way less things are getting made (laughter) because studios have found a business model that allows for that to happen, then, strike aside, that's just bad, you know?
DEL BARCO: Screenwriter Alex O'Keefe was on the picket lines for months in 2023, but he says he still struggles, even after writing on the first season of the Emmy-winning series, "The Bear."
ALEX O'KEEFE: I haven't worked in another union writers' room since the strike. Part of it's being Black, part of it's being young, part of it's not being established enough to survive the climate we're in.
DEL BARCO: Writers and actors of color were already underrepresented in Hollywood before the strikes. Recent circumstances are no better. Actress Dominique Generaux says everyone in front of and behind the cameras has not only been affected by the production downturn, but also because more films and TV shows are being made outside of California these days.
DOMINIQUE GENERAUX: It's overall been a really hard five years, and it's hard to financially hang on. So there are a lot of people that have had to step away or move to a different market.
DEL BARCO: Still, Generaux is hoping California's new tax incentives will bring productions back to LA. SAG-AFTRA's national executive director, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, says the new contract is helping those actors who are working.
DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND: We've been having regular meetings with the companies that are called for by the agreement, so we've been getting updates under confidentiality agreements about their plans and activities in connection with AI.
DEL BARCO: The major studios are still thinking about how to use AI tools that are not barred in the union contracts. Here's Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos talking to investors.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TED SARANDOS: Our creators are already seeing the benefits in production through pre-visualization and shot planning work, and certainly visual effects. I think these tools are helping creators expand the possibilities of storytelling on screen, and that is endlessly exciting.
DEL BARCO: The contract's AI protections for writers and actors have laid the groundwork for other workers around the country, says actress Sue Birch. She was a SAG-AFTRA strike captain in New York.
SUE BIRCH: We established that we own our own image. We own our own voice. We're licensing it to you. You know, it's my voice. It's my body. It's my work.
DEL BARCO: Screenwriters and actors are already gearing up for a new contract with the studios next year.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Hollywood.
MARTÍNEZ: And just to note, many of us here at NPR are also members of the SAG-AFTRA union, but under a different contract. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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