Why the Cast of Oppenheimer Walked Out on Their Movie Premiere: The Story of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes

by Emily Wade

On May 2nd, 2023, the Writers Guild of America (the WGA) announced a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) after it refused to accommodate the writers’ requests for a new contract. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) followed suit just two months later on July 14, 2023 due to a similar disagreement, also with AMPTP.

These announcements marked the first time in 60 years that writers and actors have gone on strike together. Following the declared strikes, Oppenheimer stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy left their UK premiere of the highly anticipated movie to join the picket lines.

Here’s what led up to the walkout:

The WGA Strike:

The AMPTP represents over 350 production companies including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, and Universal, and they create nearly all the television series and movies in Hollywood that we see on our screens today. The WGA, which protects thousands of American screenwriters, held a former three-year contract with the AMPTP that was scheduled to expire on May 1, 2023.

With growing concerns about how screenwriters would stay protected under the old contract as Hollywood evolves under the influences of streaming and AI, the WGA set up a meeting with AMPTP on March 20th, almost a month and a half before the expiration date, to update terms and address changes to the industry that have influenced writers’ pay.

The WGA recognized that as streaming becomes more popular, episodes are often released in shorter seasons, which minimizes work for writers.

Additionally, when scripting for shorter seasons, writers work before the show is even approved, and therefore work under unsettled payment contracts. Because of this, production companies often unfairly compensated the writers.

Another large point of contention during the contract bargaining process was the payment of residuals to writers.

Residuals are a cut of the profit production companies make from reruns of TV shows or films—but as many production companies turn to streaming services that are reliant on monthly or annual subscription fees for revenue, residuals specific to reruns (the type that writers can profit from in the WGA contract) have decreased dramatically.

Now, writers only receive a tiny cut from projects, as most find their success on streaming services.

The WGA was also nervous that the already undervalued jobs of writers would be overtaken by the growing use of artificial intelligence. The union knew that, without setting some standards, boundaries, and regulations, the use of AI could get out of hand.

The WGA officially requested that the AMPTP provide their writers with an extended and equitable compensation, increased residual payments, and job protection against the use of scripting with artificial intelligence by May 1st. However, AMPTP failed to hear their proposals for the new contract and offered no compromise.

By May 2nd, an astounding 97.6% of the WGA union agreed to go on strike as a bargaining chip for cooperation from the AMPTP, stopping almost all big-scale productions. Shows such as Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel’s The Tonight Show, and even Stranger Things ceased production.

Some television series with finished scripts like HBO’s House of the Dragon plowed onward, but as How I Met Your Mother screenwriter Carter Bayes said in an interview with Vogue, “You might read about your favorite show staying in production through the strike because ‘the scripts are finished.’ To which I reply, ‘Oh honey…’ The scripts are never finished. If your favorite show is shooting without a writer on set, it’s going to be… well, just fine.”

“There will be a huge difference in quality between previous seasons and television that is filmed during the strike.”

All in all, writers’ demands account for only 2% of what a production company makes per year.

Do you think the writing of a show accounts for more than 2% of it’s success?

The SAG-AFTRA strike:

SAG-AFTRA, representing American screen actors, handled a comparable situation against AMPTP after coming across similar issues regarding residual payments and use of artificial intelligence during re-contracting agreements.

Before the use of streaming, actors would get paid based on each view of their movie or television show—again, residuals.

With the rising popularity of streaming services, acting pay is being severely undercut. Services such as Netflix and Hulu only pay actors to have their shows or movies available on the platform, and not by how many times they are streamed.

Mandy Moore, who starred in the hit NBC show This Is Us said she's received streaming residuals checks for as low as 1 penny.

Along with concerns about streaming residuals, actors are worried that their role in productions would be replaced with artificial intelligence. This is especially scary for lesser-known “background” actors, as their image could be scanned and used in any television series and movie that a production company wishes—though the actors would not be paid for the use of their digitalized image.

Without regulations on the use of artificial intelligence, this could extend to better known actors as well, who were worried their digitalization wouldn’t represent their well-liked image.

SAG-AFTRA announced a strike against the AMPTP on July 14, 2023, after their contract with the company expired with no settlement.

SAG-AFTRA’s strike doesn’t just include acting though—actors also aren’t allowed to promote projects they have been/are currently a part of. This means they can’t attend premieres, talk about projects in interviews, go on press tours, or even post about their work on social media. Because of this, TV shows and films like Challengers, starring Zendaya, have pushed back their release dates, even though the filming is finished.

Because a movie with Zendaya in it? Success. A movie with Zendaya on the press tour? A mega-success.

The Effects of the Strikes:

The ongoing strikes have deprived more than just writers and actors of their jobs. Workers supporting productions, such as costume designers, stylists, support staff, etc., have all been laid off, costing California’s economy approximately 3 billion dollars.

While most people in these occupations stand with the unions, they are still struggling to find jobs and make ends meet in the meantime.

The strikes have terminated any brainstorming, pitching, writing, acting, or promoting for projects associated with AMPTP. As a result, many release dates are being pushed back indefinitely, such as popular shows The Last of Us, Euphoria, and Stranger Things and movies such as Dune 2, Beetlejuice 2, and Deadpool 3.

Even the Emmys, originally scheduled for September 18, was postponed to January 15, 2024.

However, the show House of the Dragon is still filming as the script was written before the strike and cast members are primarily from the UK. Any production not affiliated with AMPTP, such as the film Mother Mary, or those not based in the US, should also proceed as scheduled.

Current Status:

After nearly five months of labor stoppage and struggles with back and forth negotiating, the WGA finally announced the end of their strike on September 27, 2023. The AMPTP agreed to increase writers’ minimum compensation, lengthen terms of employment, better streaming residuals based on viewership, and restrict the use of artificial intelligence.

According to the contract, the use of AI is authorized, but banned to write material which would undermine writer’s compensation.

Roughly 99% of the union supported ratifying the new, three-year contract.

Yet the writers aren’t out of the woods yet—TV and film production is still halted because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, even though the WGA is not.

We can only hope that the SAG-AFTRA strike can come to a conclusion with similar success. However, SAG-AFTRA tweeted on October 12th that the AMPTP had “presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.” So, it’s not looking good.

In the meantime, it seems that actors such as the stars of Oppenheimer will still have to march to the picket lines and stand their ground, demanding the working conditions they know they deserve.

There is no clear end in sight for SAG-AFTRA’s strike, so only time will tell what productions will survive Hollywood’s drought.