SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher is eager to continue negotiations with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP), who’re allegedly dragging their heels.
“I want we might be speaking to the opposite facet,” Drescher, 65, mentioned throughout a Wednesday, July 19, look on CBS Mornings. “We mentioned we’d begin speaking to them instantly, however they’re punishing us. They don’t wish to speak to us, so, oh effectively, you recognize, they complained [the strike] goes to close down the enterprise however they don’t come to the desk.”
The Nanny alum, who was elected president of the acting union in 2021, additional famous that there’s been zero communication with the AMPTP. “I believe stonewalling is their most popular method,” Drescher quipped. “That’s what we’re up towards.”
Drescher introduced on Thursday, July 13, that the SAG-AFTRA board had authorized a strike after the AMPTP — on behalf of the Hollywood movie studios — did not agree to any of SAG’s terms, relating to fair residual wages, the usage of synthetic intelligence and extra.
“I went in considering that we might be capable of avert a strike. The gravity of this transfer just isn’t misplaced on me,” Drescher mentioned in a press convention on the time. “It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands, if not tens of millions of individuals all throughout this nation and all over the world. Not solely members of this union however individuals who work in different industries that service the those that work on this business. … We had no selection. We are the victims right here. We’re being victimized by a really grasping entity.”
Fran Drescher Giles Harrison/London Leisure/Shutterstock
Drescher and plenty of actors — together with the likes of Olivia Wilde, Nina Dobrev, Kevin Bacon and Mandy Moore — joined the picket lines earlier this week in help.
The AMPTP famous in a press release of its personal final week that they had been “deeply upset that SAG-AFTRA has determined to stroll away from negotiations” and begin putting.
“Why would we go on strike if we had been supplied such an unimaginable deal? It doesn’t make sense,” Drescher mentioned on Wednesday. “We’re not making $78,000 a day just like the CEOs of those corporations. So, it’s insulting for them to imply that we’re being sort of spoiled brats when persons are journeymen, working those that simply wish to pay the hire and put meals on the desk.”
She continued: “They want to squeeze blood from a rock as a result of all they’re considering is exhibiting their shareholders how a lot cash they’re making and never dropping, and the place do they go? To the performer, who’s the very basis of their entire enterprise mannequin. It’s very unusual and I simply don’t perceive why folks don’t do the precise factor.”