Dispatches From The Picket Lines In NYC, Burbank: “Studios Should Be Embarrassed We Are Still Out Here Yelling At Them”

This is day 103 of SAG-AFTRA strike.

The actors were back out on the picket line in full force Tuesday — the same day their union was set to resume negotiations with the AMPTP.

More from Deadline

• SAG-AFTRA & CEOs Set Another Meeting For Wednesday; Studios' New Proposal To Break Revenue Sharing Logjam "Flopped" In Room Today - Update

• SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies And TV Series

• Ampere: North American Unscripted Commissions Fell By 14% In Run-Up To Strikes As 'Masked Singer' Dominates Global Formats Game

Thesps walked the line on both coasts, with actors like Sarah Paulson, Zachary Quinto, Betty Gilpin, J. Smith-Cameron, Carrie Preston and Ke Huy Quan marching in the Big Apple while Allison Janney, Jeri Ryan, Rick Gonzalez (Law & Order: Organized Crime), The Continental stars Mishel Prada and Adam Shapiro, Breaking Bad’s Charles Baker and Myles Grier and Jury Duty‘s Trisha LaFache pounded the pavement outside of Warner Bros. in Burbank.

Members of the American Federation of Musicians also came out to the WB picket line Tuesday to support members of SAG-AFTRA.

“Today is back to the table, day one of negotiations,” said Ryan to Deadline. “I want to send a message to all our negotiating committee members that we’re with you, we love you, stand strong. Go get ’em.”

Disney’s Bob Iger, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, have been participating in efforts to close an agreement with the actors union for the past several weeks. It was the studio bosses who asked the Guild for the talks to restart today, we hear — an offer that was accepted in short order. That intel was confirmed in a post the Guild put up on social media not long after the second round new talks were announced.

“How do I feel about the negotiations? I’m optimistic,” added Gonzalez. “I think what I love about my union is that we’ve always been ready to negotiate at the drop of a dime. And I think what we’ve been asking for has been nothing short of fair and equal to both sides.”

Added The Continental‘s Shapiro, “If the AMPTP walks away again, we’ll just be back on these picket lines like we have been for the last 103 days. Every day we are out here we get stronger, so it’s up to them to finish this thing.”

Tuesday’s SAG-AFTRA picket in downtown Manhattan stretched the length of the block connecting Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. Picketers chanted loudly to beats from a three-person percussion line that included actor Jill Hennessy on tambourine and they cheered every sympathetic honk of the horn from passing vehicles.

Rebecca Damon, Executive Director, New York Local, Labor Policy and International Relations, also marched Tuesday.

Gondelman, who belongs to both unions, reminded picketers that the overlapping writers and actors strikes have spanned more than 170 days. “The studios should be embarrassed that we’re still out here yelling at them six months in,” he shouted through a bullhorn. “They should be humiliated because they should have put a fair deal on the table already.”

Meanwhile, writer/actor Josh Gondelman addressed the picket outside Netflix/WBD in NYC. “This energy is incredible out here today. I love seeing everyone out here,” he said. “We should not have to be out here anymore. The studios should be embarrassed we are still out here yelling at them.”

“I don’t want to get my hopes up because they were dashed the other week,” actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine told Deadline. “So it’s cautious optimism. I’m so inspired by the numbers of people that have come out. I was here yesterday as well and was blown away by all of the support. So we’ll stay out here as long as we have to. I’m crossing my fingers and not holding my breath.”

John Carroll Lynch told Deadline expressed some optimism about today’s talks. “I hope that the AMPTP and, more specifically, the corporations that make up that trade organization understand that we’re not going away. This is not a circumstance where performers can back down. We need to get these protections from artificial intelligence … we need to get a raise, and we need to change the business model.”

A handful of picketers likened the impasse to an internal family disagreement. “You have to come back to the table because you’re family,” actor Sevans Martinez told Deadline.

Dann Fink, a voiceover actor, compared the two sides to feuding siblings: “Your parents make you sit down and shake hands at the end. And I kind of feel like that’s the moment that we’re in.”

Hennessy, a regular presence on the New York picket lines, told Deadline that while “it’s kind of scary to hope,” her hope is that the AMPTP is really ready to talk after a two-week walkout,  similar in length and timing to one the writers confronted before a deal was finally reached.

“Nothing gets done when people don’t talk,” Hennessy said. “I don’t care whether it’s a family, a country or unions.”

“As to what will happen, I have no clue,” she added. “To be honest, hitting the line is good for my sanity. I get to hang with my community. I get to know them better. And there’s a lot of people who are hurting right now. One of the guys that plays drums with me, he works night shifts on two other jobs so he can be here every day to play a snare drum, just to keep people’s spirits up.”

Best of Deadline

• Film Festival Calendar Listings For 2023

• 2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming

• SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies And TV Series

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.