July 29 (UPI) — Actress and comedian Sarah Silverman has taken to Instagram to criticize artists who are working under independent film waivers during the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes, which have shut down most U.S. film and TV productions.
“Set me straight and I’ll take this down. What am I not getting?#UnionStrong #WGA #sagaftra,” Silverman captioned Friday’s F bomb-peppered video, which already has gotten more than 41,000 “likes.”
In the clip, Silverman said she was “pissed off” because she and a lot of other performers have declined roles in non-studio backed projects, believing they would be hurting the overall cause by “scabbing.”
She added that she doesn’t know whether she is more angry at the actors for taking the jobs in low-budget films and TV shows — which will eventually end up on the platforms they are striking against — or at the union for granting the waivers.
“The strike ends when they come to the table and we make a deal and agreement,” Silverman said, warning that some artists working during the strike through the loophole of waivers could “exponentially prolong” the larger work stoppage.
WGA has been on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers since May and SAG joined them two weeks ago.
Comedian and filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait backed Silverman’s sentiments.
“I agree 100%! Plus are new pages being written on these shoots??” he wrote. “Or rewriting being done on the sets?? I’ve never been on a movie with no rewrites! Thanks for saying this!”
“It’s truly undercutting the strike. The fact that the interim agreement reverts to whatever is agreed to at the end of the strike is a losing proposition. My pitch is don’t make them interim agreements just make them agreements to the current demands that do not revert to the amptp strike settlement,” said writer and comedian Paul Scheer.
“Then stipulate the producer can only sell the movie/show with those new deal points in there. That is at least is some sort of real win. Also there are trade articles about how producers are just delaying signing the streamer portions of their deals to be ‘indie’ to get the waiver fully knowing they will sign when the time comes.”
But others offered different perspectives.
“I think we are striking certain particular contractual agreements with the amptp- not all work,” Zooey Deschanel said.
Juliette Lewis added: “Call me an idealist but my HOPE is that there is a big mid-range Indie movie Renaissance that goes into theatres that are NOT waiting to be ‘sold’ streamers and that this formula and model gets broken and interrupted and threatened- of going to streamers. That is my big hope & optimism -with these in the productions.
“Also my brother, who is a laborer — I would love him to work on an independent production,” she said. “Bunch of my friends in other states have had their unemployment checks run out, so if there’s movie productions that are not going to streamers- I’m for it for my crew and family.”
