The contract, negotiated between the actors’ union SAG-Aftra and the Hollywood studio alliance AMPTP, was approved this Wednesday with 78.33% of the vote, an overwhelming margin, despite dissatisfaction with provisions regarding artificial intelligence.
SAG-Aftra management announced the results hours after voting ended three weeks after the 118-day strike paralyzed Hollywood.
“Today we close one of the most important chapters in the recent history of the entertainment industry,” union President Fran Drescher, who led the fight for a contract with better working conditions for actors, said in a joint statement with chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
“This contract is a huge win for hard-working actors and marks the beginning of a new era for the industry,” they said, highlighting higher salaries, better streaming compensation and AI-related protections.
But the way the agreement governs the industry’s use of artificial intelligence, namely digital copies of actors, led to 21.67% of the thousands of union members who took part voting “no”.
Portuguese actress Kika Magalhães, who has lived in Los Angeles since 2016, did just that, explaining to Lusa that contract provisions do not protect the interests of actors, especially those who do not have bargaining power.
“The actor goes to the casting [audição] and the producers ask if you’re okay with them making a digital copy. If the actor refuses, he may not be given the role,” he explained before the end of the voting.
Unlike what happens in the contract reached between the WGA and the studio alliance, there is no requirement that artists be human. This opens up the possibility that the performance, whether visual or vocal only, is performed by synthetic actors, that is, digital replicas made possible by recent advances in artificial intelligence.
In the case of screenwriters, it is stated that writers must be human.
The contract, ratified this Wednesday, will run for the next three years, which for Portuguese lighting designer Afonso Salcedo, who worked on Disney’s latest film “Desire,” is a good time to understand how technology will develop.
The union said in a statement that 38.15% of its roughly 150,000 members voted.
With the strike over and the green light for new productions, a full return to work is not expected until the new year, which means there should be fewer films and TV series in 2024 than in previous years.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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