Sarah Silverman Backpedals Her Anger Towards SAG-AFTRA Indie Interim Agreements After Learning What They Actually Entail
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Despite such arrangements being okay’d by the guild itself, Santa Inc. star Sarah Silverman is unhappy with the decision by some of her fellow SAG-AFTRA colleagues to continue working on indie productions.
Photo Credit: Ali Shaker/VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Beginning on July 27th, the currently-striking Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has begun to issue various waivers that say respective members “may work on [certain] productions without being in violation of the strike order.”
The guild has also begun granting ‘casting-specific’ waives which give members the green-light to ” “audition and/or engage in negotiations regarding casting for these productions, but may not yet travel, rehearse, or otherwise begin rendering services for the production.”
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In order to qualify for an interim agreement, productions are required to be independent from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and agree to follow SAG-AFTRA’s most recent terms bargaining terms.
According to Deadline, there are over 102 projects who have thus far received the SAG-AFTRA interim agreement including the Apple TV+series Tehran, Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman produced spy drama series The Gray House, Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers, and Glenn Close’s The Summer Book.
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However, one actor is not happy with this system.
Taking to Instagram on July 27th, Silverman published a nearly-three minute Instagram video wherein she expressed her disappointment and frustration towards anyone accepting work under these agreements.
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“Can somebody explain to me what I’m not understanding?” the Don’t Look Up Star kicked off her rant. “Because I feel f–king pissed off. And I know I just must not be understanding something.”
“There are like 40 movies being made right now,” she continued. “Movie stars are making movies because they’re independent movies, and SAG is allowing it because if they do sell it to streaming, it has to be because streaming is abiding by all the things we’re asking for.”
“That’s just working,” Silverman then declared, reiterating “The strike ends when they come to the table and we make a deal in agreement.”
“So, you’re just letting people make movies, and movie stars are making movies that you know the goal is to sell them to streaming,” said the actress. “When SAG joined the strike, it’s, ‘Movie stars aren’t making movies for you anymore, now what are you going to do?’ Well, they’re making movies.”
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‘What the f–k?’ the Ralph Breaks the Internet star proceeded to rhetorically ask. “I got offered an indie movie, I f–king said no, and so did a bunch of my friends, and now some of my friends are saying yes. I’m really pissed. Please, explain to me why I shouldn’t be angry, because people are making real-deal sacrifices. People, writers, actors, crew people, all these people are sacrificing their livelihood for this cause. It’s called union strong, where we are all together.”
“And when SAG joined the strike, we should see every movie star out there striking along, because you have insurance because of your union and you get residuals because of your union,” she added. “All of these things you get because of your union and you can’t stand with your union? So, I don’t know if I’m mad at these movie stars that are making these indie movies that are obviously going to go to streaming, or am I mad at SAG for making this interim deal for these indie movies.”
“It’s scabbing, you’ve made that so clear that it’s scabbing,” the A Million Ways to Die in the West star ultimately concluded. “Now, all of a sudden movie stars can make movies if they’re indie movies where they promise they’ll only sell it if X, Y, and Z. That’s called the end of the strike, motherf–ker.”
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In the wake of Silverman’s rant, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland informed Deadline that the guild had met with Sarah Silverman and other actors to provide more information, context, and resources around the interim agreements. Our members remain united and all-in for our fight to secure fair, equitable, and respectful contracts.”
Shortly thereafter, Silverman returned to her Instagram to reveal that while she had learned information that made her less heated, she will still bothered with the overall situation.
“The interim agreements means that these indie productions are agreeing and adhering to all the terms that SAG wants, the ideal version of what of what we’re fighting for,” she explained. “And then anyone who wants to buy those productions, streaming or cable or whatever AMPTP owned movie theater, etc, they have to adhere to those SAG terms, or, or whatever has finally been agreed upon at the end of all of this, which will likely be something a little less than everything SAG. wants, but still be great.
“So, from the SAG leadership’s perspective, this shows the AMPTP that it proves to them that what we’re asking for is not unreasonable and can be done and in fact, is being done and it forces them to either either participate in it if they want the product, the film or the TV show,” said Silverman.
“For me, I feel extremely comfortable agreeing to disagree and working together, picketing and telling the AMPTP that they can f–king kick rocks because the truth is, we all want the same thing,” she closed out her thoughts. “We want a swift end to this strike, we want to get back to work having won crucial new benefits.”
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