Actors and writers on strike are united and determined in the face of a long summer standoff
Solidarity and stamina are themes on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles as striking actors and writers are bracing for a long standoff with studios
LOS ANGELES — Solidarity and stamina were picket-line themes Monday as striking screenwriters and actors in New York and Los Angeles braced for a long, hot summer standoff with studios.
Picketers emphasized unity between writers, who have been on the lines for more than two months, and performers, who are only on Day 2 of striking — as well as camaraderie between highly paid actors and those with spare screen credits who struggle to scrape by.
Kevin Bacon, who was among the famous faces picketing among unknowns outside Viacom headquarters in New York, said his presence was about “seeing people out here and being aware that not all actors are super high paid actors, that they are working class people who are trying to make a living.”
One such working actor, Whitney Morgan Cox, who has appeared on the CBS series “Criminal Minds,” said it was “powerful” to see writers and actors come together who don't often work simultaneously in production.
“I don’t think people necessarily realize the energy that writers and actors have,” Cox said outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, “and the stamina, and our ability to commit, that’s all our entire job is about is just committing to something and following through. So it’s been a really beautiful sense of community.”
Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously on Thursday that when their contract expired they would start striking the following day, joining the Writers Guild of America, who walked out on May 2.
“It’s been amazing to be out here
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