Much of the work in Hollywood is on pause as both the writers’ and actors’ unions are on strike at the same time.
Worcester native and actor Jake Head is a member of SAG-AFTRA and has appeared in many films, including “Ted” and “Spiderman 3.” He spoke with Spectrum News 1 to give his take on the ongoing strike.
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One of the hot button issues for the strike is residuals and streaming services. Can you break that down for us?
Over the last 10 to 15 years, the way that we consume content has totally changed. So before, it was a network model and a cable model, and DVD and VHS. You would get everything from the network, and there was a residual structure in place, there was a pay structure in place.
Now, that’s all changed because the internet, streaming services, we’ve all gone to that model. Even the networks, like NBC, CBS, they have streaming services. So, what we’re seeing as the actors is you are now selling our name, images, likeness, things like that, you’re doing that in a very different way. This is the new way content is being distributed, and our contracts need to reflect that.
Another issue is the use of artificial intelligence. How does that threaten your livelihood?
With AI, [the studios] will be able to take a sample, and this is further on, they’re not there yet, but what they can do is they can take a sample of my voice and re-sample that voice and be able to manipulate it and use it and maybe put it on someone else’s face, an animal, whatever they want to do with it.
They can use my likeness over and over again, and we want to make sure that we’re compensated for that. One of the reasons we get residuals is because the image is used again, the voice is used again over and over. Whereas some labor is just done on that day, ours is continually used in different markets, streaming platforms and things like that. So, what [the union is] trying to do is head off [the studios] monopolizing our image and likeness.
What are you hearing from the SAG-AFTRA union leaders right now?
I’m not hearing good things for both sides of the ball. Before I went into full-time acting, I worked at the studios, so I’m pretty connected around the town with a lot of people, and they’re very concerned that this will go for a long time. Right now, I know for sure that the WGA, the writers’ guild, they are not having negotiations right now and they’ve walked away from the table. There’s been a little bit of movement from the SAG-AFTRA, but right now, they’re not talking. They’re miles apart, nobody’s talking.
You have two sides that can wait it out. Actors are used to being able to go unemployed for a long time, and these studios and streamers and tech companies that we’re striking against, these are extremely powerful companies.
So, if they’re not even willing to negotiate and we’re that far apart, they can virtue signal all they want, but here is a time where rubber meets the road, and they don’t want to give the people that work for them decent labor deals, fair labor deals that reflect the parlance of our time? I really think people need to pay attention. These companies can wait this out for a long time.