Hollywood Shares Reactions to Actors’ Strike — 1st in 43 Years

SAG-AFTRA and its more than 160,000 television and film talent are officially on strike, and the stars are already speaking out on the decision to strike.

The entire cast of the much-anticipated Christopher Nolan film “Oppenheimer” left the London premiere ahead of the screening to show their solidarity.

Nolan confirmed the news that his cast had left the premiere due to the “struggle for fair wages.”

One of the movie’s actors, Emily Blunt, had said the walkout would happen if a strike went through.

“I hope everyone makes a fair deal and we are here to celebrate this movie. If they call it, we’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone,” Blunt told Deadline Thursday. “We are gonna have to. We are gonna have to. We will see what happens.”

Her co-star Matt Damon told the Associated Press, "We got to figure out something that is fair."

Speaking with Vanity Fair Wednesday, Riley Keough said she stands behind the writers of the WGA. “Yeah, it’s a very strange time and we’re very uncharted and I don’t know what to expect, but I feel proud to stand in solidarity with my fellow film community, like my second family. I love this community so much and I love the support within this community and I’m hoping for a resolution soon.”

Keough added that she is also thinking of the people whose jobs are impacted by the strike, like the crews.

“I think of course there’s concern. There’s people that aren’t able to work at the moment who need to be working.”

Jamie Lee Curtis shared in Instagram post, "The @sagaftra symbol used to be the masks of the actors face. 🎭REPRESENTING the EXPRESSIONS. The EMOTIONS. The FEELINGS generated by the WORDS of their UNION MEMBERS! Union contracts PROTECT our SAFETY and EXPLOITATION! We are UNION STRONG!"

"And Just Like That..." star Cynthia Nixon shared on Twitter, "The @sagaftra strike has at last arrived. I am proud to be standing tall with the @WGAWest and @WGAEast as actors and writers together demand a fair share of the record-breaking profits the studios have been reaping from our labor for far too long. We will win this!"

Jamie Lynn Spears, a SAG-AFTRA member who has recently worked with both Paramount and Netflix on projects set to come out later this month, shared her thoughts on the strike on her Instagram stories Thursday.

“It’s important and necessary that we all stick together, but it’s also heartbreaking and creates a lot of complicated feelings because you worked so hard with so many other people — not just yourself — to create this and this is your time to celebrate it.”

Spears went on to say that she and her castmates will not be doing any “ongoing press, social media promotion, premieres, anything” towards any projects that a have wrapped or are currently in the works.

The president of SAG-AFTRA, Fran Drescher, released a statement to her fellow members Thursday explaining why an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) was unable to reached.

“From the time negotiations began on June 7, the members of our Negotiating Committee and our staff team have spent many long days, weekends and holidays working to achieve a deal that protects you, the working actors, and performers on whom this industry relies. Despite our team’s dedication to advocating on your behalf, the AMPTP has refused to acknowledge that enormous shifts in the industry and economy have had a detrimental impact on those who perform labor for the studios.”