Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Other A-Listers Threaten to Strike If Actors Union Demands Not Met

A-list actresses Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and others have all vowed to strike against the studios if they do not meet the proposed demands from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) union.

The letter, which also includes signatures from talents like Sarah Polley, Ben Stiller, and Laura Linney, argued that they will strike if push came to shove regardless of the consequences.

“A strike brings incredible hardships to so many, and no one wants it. But we are prepared to strike if it comes to that,” the letter said, adding that 2023 became an “unprecedented inflection point in our industry.” Per Rolling Stone, which obtained the letter:

We hope you’ve heard the message from us: This is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough. We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.

We want you to know that we would rather go on strike than compromise on these fundamental points, and we believe that, if we settle for a less than transformative deal, the future of our union and our craft will be undermined, and SAG-AFTRA will enter the next negotiation with drastically reduced leverage.

The threat for a strike comes after the SAG-AFTRA union overwhelmingly voted in favor of a strike just a little over a month after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) enacted its own strike, claiming unfair wages and staffing cuts. Some striking writers have further claimed that streaming services have hollowed out the work to such a degree that they now feel like Uber drivers in a gig economy rather than creatives with a career that supports them.

“The streamers don’t care about anything, they think we’re Uber drivers: ‘Come in, do your job, go home, that’s great. You’re free,’” Marjorie David, the vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, told The Daily Beast.

Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed on Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies, or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.