And if the French followed the movement? Since July 13, 2023, many American actors and actresses have decided to go on strike, due to the failure of negotiations with major studios. As a result, the union of American actors has opted for a balance of power in order to assert the rights of the actors. Since this announcement, all of Hollywood has been paralyzed.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of the union representing 160,000 actors and other professionals, himself announced that comedians voted unanimously in favor of a strike against studios and broadcasters. Note that the screenwriters have been on strike since the beginning of May.
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A strike, but why?
What are the strikers complaining about? The stagnation of salaries, while the mode of remuneration of screenwriters has been upset by the arrival of streaming platforms. This leads to the disappearance of the residual rights that they touched with each rebroadcast, as underlined West France. In addition, unions are calling for safeguards against the emergence of artificial intelligence, which threatens to create digital replicas of actors and generate scenarios.
Following this decision, many projects have been postponed, in particular the long-awaited Dunes 2 by Denis Villeneuve. With many actors wanting to assert their rights and protest against film industry practices, the final season of Stranger Things, Gladiator 2as well as the continuation of the saga with Timothée Chalamet are also impacted, as announced by Warner Bros a few days ago.
Louis Garrel calls on the French to mobilize
The movement does not seem to be weakening and could even grow even more. Indeed, a famous French actor has just taken the floor on his social networks to call on French actors to join the movement. It is Louis Garrelthe companion of Laëtitia Casta, as relayed the Destination Cine Twitter account.
“We, the French actors and actresses, must be more involved in this strike, because it is very important. The strike is of great importance, especially for the industry in general. This is why we must mobilize to this movement. I feel a certain responsibility for the fact that not all French actors join the movement in solidarity, but I think it will happen. It will happen,” he said confidently.
It remains to be seen whether actors such as Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Adèle Exarchopoulos or even Pierre Niney will actually follow the call of Louis Garrel. If this is the case, French projects could also be impacted, as has been the case across the Atlantic for several weeks now.
RF