Tilly Norwood<\/a> \u2014 the digital creation that crystallized AI fears last fall. Though SAG-AFTRA won some AI protections in the strike, it can\u2019t stop Tilly and her ilk from taking actors\u2019 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\tBut it might be able to extract payment for it.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIs that a perfect solution? No,\u201d says Brendan Bradley, a member of the union\u2019s AI task force. \u201cBut it\u2019s under the category of the best bad idea we\u2019ve got in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe threat of another strike is always on the table, but for now the alert level is low. SAG-AFTRA has agreed to bargain unusually early, months ahead of the June 30 contract expiration, and there has even been optimistic chatter about wrapping up a deal in March.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has a new lead negotiator, Greg Hessinger, a former SAG leader. Early indications suggest he might be more flexible than his predecessor, Carol Lombardini, whose favorite word, according to frustrated union officials, was \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAn AMPTP spokesman says the studios look forward to reaching a \u201cfair deal\u201d that supports actors and the industry\u2019s long-term stability.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and president Sean Astin are preparing to sit down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next month.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRocco Ceselin\/SAG-AFTRA<\/p>\n
\n\tAI is a headline issue, but by no means the only one. The transition to streaming was also key to the strike, and the resulting deal left unfinished business.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe No. 1 thing is still residuals,\u201d says Kate Bond, a strike captain in 2023 and a member of the union\u2019s L.A. board. \u201cIs there a way to make it so when a show goes up on a streaming platform, we get the equivalent amount of money as a network residual?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAt one point during the strike, SAG-AFTRA demanded 1% of streamers\u2019 total revenues \u2014 or about $500 million a year. The union settled for a streaming \u201csuccess bonus\u201d projected at $40 million annually, though it has come in well below that.<\/p>\n
\n\tUnion negotiators are expected to push to improve the terms. But some actors remain profoundly dissatisfied with the compromise.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the days of broadcast and cable, actors would be paid for every rerun. An actor on a hit show could
sustain a middle-class lifestyle for years on the back of residuals. Reruns don\u2019t exist on streaming, and
residuals are a comparative pittance.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think we\u2019ve lost our way when we\u2019re negotiating bonuses instead of residuals,\u201d says Jeffrey Reeves, an actor who has been critical of union leadership. \u201cWe\u2019ve given up the pay-per-play or pay-per-audience model.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStreaming shows also have lengthier hiatuses between seasons \u2014 sometimes as long as several years. SAG-AFTRA has tried to limit exclusivity provisions, which prevent series regulars from seeking work on other shows during downtime, and that is expected to be an issue in the coming talks.<\/p>\n
\n\tSome also remain unhappy with self-taped auditions \u2014 a COVID-era innovation that requires many actors to invest in home studios to try out for roles.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the most existential fear remains AI. After the 2023 strike, the union waged a yearlong strike against video game companies over AI. And in deals with record labels and commercial producers, it has won royalties for wholly synthetic performances. For union commercials, if an actor is replaced by an AI performer, the equivalent pay has to go into the SAG-AFTRA pension and health funds.<\/p>\n
\n\tActors remain aghast at the idea of being replaced by a digital amalgam of other actors\u2019 performances \u2014 or having their own performances used to replace others.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo actor wants that,\u201d says Erik Passoja, a former co-chair of the union\u2019s L.A. New Technology Committee. He sees a \u201cTilly tax\u201d as a last resort.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI say no, no and triple no,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if it has to be, it should go into pension and health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call it the Tilly tax. In the future, studios that use synthetic actors in place of humans might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,3801,74,110261],"class_list":{"0":"post-443042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-sag-aftra","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-tilly-norwood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}