Transcript: 'It Will Surprise Us How Fast it Can Disappear'
'Dickinson' creator and showrunner Alena Smith on her warning about Hollywood's future
Elaine Low (00:42):
Tell me, you're out here on the hundredth day of the strike. What does it mean to you to be out here today?
[Alex O'Keefe] (00:46):
You know, I thought at the beginning of the strike, by a hundred days, we'd be tired, we'd be broken, and that's what you usually expect with the strike. It's a war of attrition. Strikes are never easy. And by this point, usually membership is getting distrustful of leadership, distrustful of each other. This strike, it's not like that.
Janice Min (01:03):
That was Alex O'Keefe from The Bear, a writer from The Bear, out on the picket lines on Day 100, talking to our own, Elaine Low.
(01:11)
Hi, Elaine.
Elaine Low (01:12):
Hi. We are on Day 101 now.
Janice Min (01:14):
Day 101. We're taping. I'm Janice Min. I'm sitting in as host today for Sean McNulty, who overdid it. He overdosed on earnings calls, is taking the day off.
(01:26)
We're joined today by Richard Rushfield, and special guest, Alena Smith, the showrunner and creator of Apple TV'sDickinson, who wrote a piece for us this week with a very dramatic headline, “Death Spiral of Hollywood Monopolies,” that had lots and lots of people talking.
(01:45)
But before we get to Alena, let's start with the latest strike news. Right when we were sitting down, Elaine, breaking news.
Elaine Low (01:52):
Breaking news. The AMPTP has reached out and they're going to meet again with the Writer's Guild. So take two on this meeting because, as we all know, last Friday's meeting to talk about meeting didn't seem to go particularly well. But apparently, it went well enough for everybody to meet again tomorrow. So we'll see what happens when they meet again in Sherman Oaks on a Friday.
Janice Min (02:14):
Always Friday.
Elaine Low (02:16):
Mm-hmm. Yeah. No summer Fridays for the Guild and the studios.
Janice Min (02:21):
So Richard, you have some thoughts about this. I think you were doing a little I-told-you-so moment, just a few minutes ago.