Sarah Silverman Sounds Off on Movie Stars Working During the Strike

Comedian Sarah Silverman is not happy that some SAG-AFTRA members are continuing to work amid the union’s strike.

“Can somebody explain to me what I’m not understanding?” Silverman asked in an Instagram video posted Thursday night. “... Because I feel fucking pissed off, and I know I just must not be understanding something.”

SAG-AFTRA officially called its strike earlier this month. For months ahead of the walkout, film and television stars had already begun popping up alongside striking writers at the WGA picket lines; Hollywood’s writers have been on strike since May.

The solidarity between unions across the industry (including the Teamsters and IATSE) has shut down most studio productions. Still, SAG-AFTRA has been granting interim deals to independent productions—providing they agree to whatever terms the union manages to win in its fight against the major studios.

According to SAG-AFTRA’s FAQ page for independent producers, “independently produced content that comes within the scope of a strike order ... may qualify for an ‘Interim Agreement’ that would allow such productions to continue working during a strike.” Deadline recently reported that 68 independent productions have received the go-ahead.

During a conference call earlier this month, Variety reports that SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said the union’s interim agreements with independent productions undermine the major studios’ assertion that its demands are “unrealistic.”

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In her video, Silverman said she wasn’t sure who she was really angry with—the stars who are working on productions that will likely sell to some streaming service, or SAG-AFTRA itself for cutting the interim deals.

“Like, what the fuck?” Silverman said. “It’s scabbing. You’ve made that so clear that it’s scabbing. Now all of a sudden, movie stars can make movies if they’re indie movies, where they promise that they’ll only sell it if X, Y, and Z? That’s called the end of the strike, motherfucker!”

A representative for SAG-AFTRA did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Silverman also expressed her concern that these interim deals would slow down the bargaining process. “When SAG joined the strike,” she said, the idea was supposed to be, “‘Movie stars aren’t making movies for you anymore. Now what are you gonna do?’

“Well, they’re making movies,” she continued. “What the fuck? I got offered an ‘indie movie.’ I fucking said no!”

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The logic that Crabtree-Ireland reportedly expressed about the interim agreements echoes a tactic the WGA used during its last strike, which lasted for 100 days from 2007 to 2008.

During that walkout, a 2014 article published by the International Association of Conflict Management’s Negotiation and Conflict Management Research journal notes, the WGA struck deals with 31 independent producers that “closely paralleled the latest WGA proposal that the AMPTP had rejected.”

According to authors Linda Putnam and Ryan Fuller, the WGA aimed to prove that, contrary to what major studios claimed, its objectives were “fair and reasonable.” The authors added that the agreements put pressure on the studios “to resume talks, even though management publicly stated that these deals were meaningless.”

“Please explain to me why I shouldn't be angry,” Silverman said in her post Thursday, “because people are making real-deal sacrifices. Writers, actors, crew people—all these people are sacrificing their livelihood for this cause. It’s called union strong, where we are all together.”

As far as Silverman is concerned, “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. All these things that you get because of your union, and you can’t stand with your union?”

Silverman’s video clearly struck a chord with some of her fellow actors—Ike Barinholtz commented on her post, “Amen sis,” Kristin Chenoweth responded, “I don’t understand either,” and Mandy Moore replied with three clapping emojis.

For more, listen to Sarah Silverman on The Last Laugh podcast.