Warnings as SAG’s 5-Month Strike Clock Starts: ‘They’re Angry. And Feel Unheard’

Talent reps lay out four issues that weren’t fixed last time — and how it could go sideways (again)

(The Ankler illustration; Antonio Jarosso/Getty Images)

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“Unmitigated catastrophe.”

“Absolute disaster.”

“Total waste of time.”

That’s how Hollywood’s top agents and talent attorneys describe the 2023 guild negotiations — a dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike that shut down the industry for half the year and left scars that still haven’t healed.

“I’m almost in denial that it’s coming up,” says a manager who reps film and TV actors. “That was painful. My hope is that, because the last double strike was so devastating, cooler minds will prevail.”

They might. Despite lingering frustration with the outcomes of 2023, there is cautious optimism this time around — driven in part by the calendar. SAG-AFTRA is heading to the table with nearly five months left before its contract expires on June 30, a stark contrast to last year’s 11th-hour talks.

“It’s not premature,” says Ivy Kagan Bierman, who chairs the entertainment labor group at Loeb & Loeb. The last round of negotiations, she says, was more charged and less collaborative than it should have been. “We have a chance to do it differently this time.”

With SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP set to begin talks on Feb. 9 — and the WGA and DGA close behind — I’ve put together this guide to what’s actually at stake, based on candid conversations with agents, managers and attorneys on the front lines of talent negotiations.

They reveal their uncensored thoughts on:

• The AI provisions that didn’t go far enough — and the outside model quietly gaining traction

• How A-list stars could force a reckoning with Big Tech

• Why streaming “bonuses” are failing even on hit shows, and the metric reps want scrapped

• The exclusivity concession SAG-AFTRA regrets, and why it’s hurting working actors most

• The slow-burn crisis in health and pension funds no one can afford to ignore

• What the AMPTP’s eight “Class A” power players are pushing for — and why the rest of the town’s buyers might not be in line

• Why the threat of another disastrous shutdown might not prevent a strike

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