People shocked by how much actors aren't able to do as they go on massive strike

A load of people have been shocked by the amount of stuff that actors can’t do now that they have gone out on strike.

The actors and film industry staff represented by SAG-AFTRA – the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – have gone out on strike alongside their Writers’ Guild of America colleagues because of a dispute over pay, conditions, and use of AI technology, meaning that Hollywood is facing an industry shutdown not seen for around four decades.

Last night, the stars of Oppenheimer walked straight out of the film’s UK premiere in London because of the strike.

No end date for the strike has been announced, and there are around 160,000 actors and performers involved.

SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that the strike is a ‘last resort’ after four weeks of talks failed to yield a solution.

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That meant that the strike – which had already been voted through – could start, meaning that there’s a load of things that actors can no longer do.

Let’s have a look at the list, shall we?

It involves all ‘principal on-camera work’ such as acting – obviously – singing, dancing, performing stunts, piloting on-camera aircraft – less obviously – performance capture and motion capture work, voice acting, and a host of other stuff.

Then, there’s the promotional and publicity work, including personal appearances, tours, interviews, premieres, conventions and fan expos, premieres – as we’ve seen – and social media promotion.

Again, that’s not an exhaustive list – there’s loads more that can’t be done.

They are also not able to enter into, negotiate, or consent to any new contracts, including ‘agreement to perform covered services in the future’, ‘any new agreement related to merchandising connected to a covered project’, or ‘the creation and use of digital replicas, including through the reuse of prior work’.

The whole list has left a few people with questions about what the actors can and can’t do, starting with a concern about Harry Styles: “So I have a question if actors are on strike they can't do any projects can H Styles still sing?”

Not if he’s a member of SAG-AFTRA, presumably.

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Another person opined: “Wondering how the strike will affect award shows?

“If actors can’t promote their work at cons, will they do award shows?”

They probably won’t.

A third said: “What do you mean actors can't do social media? Can't they still tweet as long as it isn't about current projects? I thought writers were tweeting about the strike.”

It’s complicated, but all will presumably become clear as things continue on.

The one thing that appears to be certain about this whole business is that it could go on for quite some time.

Settle in, film fans.