Some of the U.K.’s most storied actors gathered in London today to show their support for the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. The rally, held by the British version of SAG-AFTRA, Equity UK, saw everyone from Brian Cox to Imelda Staunton to Simon Pegg holding protest signs and speaking out in solidarity.
Cox addressed the crowd, which also included Naomie Harris, Jim Carter, Hayley Atwell, and Labour MP John McDonnell, and voiced concern about the threat of AI.
“I got a message this morning from an actor who’s in negotiations,” Cox shared at the rally. “Now, he’s playing a reasonable part in a TV show, and he’s on what they call a ‘supporting artist contract.’ I don’t know what that means… but it seems to cover a multitude of sins in relationship to the artist. And it seems to be an endless diminution of who we are as artists by these contracts that don’t make any sense as far as I’m concerned.”
Cox continued that his fellow actor was especially worried about “the whole business of artificial intelligence.”
“He was told in no uncertain terms that they would keep his image and do what the fuck they liked with it,” Cox said. “That is a completely unacceptable position. And that is the position that we should be really fighting against, because that is the worst aspect. The wages are one thing, but the worst aspect is the whole idea of AI and what AI can do to us.”
The actor then recounted how he appeared on a talk show where an AI version of him was going to do animal impersonations. “I’ve never done a fucking animal impersonation in my life, and I wouldn’t know where to fucking begin,” he affirmed, adding, “This is going to happen to everybody. No one is exempt from this. If you’re on a film, on a movie, on a TV show: that’s where they’ll get you. And that’s what we have to stop!”
“I think we’re at the thin end of a really horrible wedge,” Cox added. “I think it’s going to affect British Equity far worse than it probably affects SAG-AFTRA.”
American actor Rob Delaney, who lives in the U.K., also took the microphone, calling the studio group of AMPTP “silly little toddlers.”
“We’re gonna win, that’s what’s gonna happen,” Delaney said. “It won’t be easy. We gotta strike, we gotta withhold our labor. I’d rather be on the set of the film that I was on that got shut down to do this, and it’s so funny that they can’t have sympathy strikes because I’m on a SAG film shooting at Pinewood, shut down, can’t go to work, but I get to come here and meet you nice folks. We’re gonna get our win, we’re gonna get our tiny little slice of the pie, the pie that we made up the recipe for and wrote the cookbook for.”
Although many British actors are SAG-AFTRA members, there are different rules in the U.K. when it comes to strikes. Legally, Equity UK is not allowed to follow suit with SAG-AFTRA, so many productions in England have continued filming despite the massive shutdown across the industry. This includes HBO’s House of the Dragon.
“If Equity encourages anyone to join the strike or not cross a picket line, Equity itself will be acting unlawfully and hence liable for damages or an injunction,” the union confirmed. They added, “SAG-AFTRA members currently working under an Equity U.K. collective bargaining agreement should continue to report to work.”
AI has been a significant point of contention for actors during the negotiations over their new contracts with the AMPTP. SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland laid bare the AMPTP’s so-called “groundbreaking AI proposal,” which holds the potential to wipe out an entire pathway to breaking into the industry, as well as a reliable source of income for many. The reported proposal hinged on the ability for background actors to be “scanned, get paid for one day’s pay” and for that company to “own that scan of their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.”
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