Jessica Chastain says it was important for her to promote her latest movie at the Venice Film Festival to highlight the plight of the actor's strike in Hollywood.
Since May of this year, several productions both in film and television have been impacted by the strike of the Writers Guild of America, who were subsequently joined by The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who have also gone on strike.It is the first time since the 1960s that both actors and writers have been on strike at the same time, which has left Hollywood crippled.
The two main issues the actors have are residual payments and the emergence of AI that could potentially replace performers.
Under the strike rulings, actors are not allowed to promote their current projects in any way unless they receive an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA for an independent production.
Chastain has that agreement and is currently in Venice to promote new thriller, Memory, but she almost didn't go due to her solidarity with striking actors.
"I was incredibly nervous to be here today, and actually there are some people on my team who advised me against it," she told reporters.
"I am here because SAG-AFTRA has been explicitly clear that the way to support the strike is to post on social media, walk the picket lines and to work and support interim agreement projects. When indie producers sign these agreements they are letting the world know, they are letting the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) know that actors deserve fair compensation, they have protections that should be implemented and there should be sharing of streaming revenue.
"So I hope being here today encourages other producers, encourages actors to show up... Hopefully we'll see an end to the strike soon and hopefully the AMPTP will go back to the table."
The Venice Film Festival is usually one of the most star-studded events on the movie calendar, but only actors with the aforementioned interim agreements are currently allowed to take part.
The highest-profile names that have appeared are Chastain herself and Adam Driver, who is promoting Ferrari.
Comments (0)