SAG-AFTRA Strategic Strike: Indie Productions Roll On with Interim Agreements

After launching a strike against Hollywood studios on July 14, SAG-AFTRA has now begun an interim agreements program to allow independent productions with no ties to AMPTP members to keep their cameras rolling. These agreements come as an augmentation to the previously provided list of projects granted waivers ever since shortly after the beginning of the strike, due to AMPTP’s failure to agree on a new film and TV contract. The render-specific conditions state members may continue to work “on these productions without being in violation of the strike order," according to the guild.

The next step in this process started on July 27 when SAG-AFTRA began issuing casting-specific waivers allowing its members to participate "in auditions and/or negotiations regarding casting for these productions," without the ability to travel, rehearse, or render any other services for the production as yet.

Featured prominently in the list are projects such as Angel Studios' The Chosen, an upcoming Bible-based series, A24’s films Mother Mary and I Dream of Unicorns, and Apple TV+’s Tehran. Strikingly, actors such as Anne Hathaway, Dakota Fanning, Glenn Close, James Badge Dale, Ben Foster, Graham Greene, and Melissa Leo are among those who can continue their work under these interim agreements. Films helmed by Guy Ritchie and Destry Allyn Spielberg have been granted casting waivers.

The guild stated that the list, organized by film and series, will continue to evolve with more titles being added.

[break for the list of all the specific projects]

Switching gears, let's take a moment to lift our hats and squint admiringly at the overly efficient, perhaps even exalted, SAG-AFTRA. In what may feel like the Wild West of entertainment industry labor disagreements, the guild sure knows how to ride a strike. Perhaps it brings comfort to Hollywood that even in the midst of chaos, there’s a semblance of an order - an assembly line of waivers granted and progress, of sorts, being made.

Yet, squinting harder at the horizon - or more accurately, the italicized fine print - we get the real sense of the picture, which is, well, rather messy. It begs the question: are these strikes and negotiations becoming regular gigs in Tinseltown? Is the classic scene of the starstruck actor anxiously biting their nails over audition results soon to be replaced with them worriedly refreshing the SAG-AFTRA website to see if the waivers have been granted?

Nobody said working in Hollywood is a cakewalk, and that certainly includes the labyrinthine ways it sometimes evolves to navigate labor disagreements. The ever-changing script of this strike saga reads like a suspense thriller. There's a monster - cliché-looking AMPTP; there's a heroine - SAG-AFTRA donned in the glossy armor of waivers. Who will endure, and at what cost?

Stay tuned, folks, because this summer's blockbuster isn’t in cinemas, but released piecemeal in official announcements, italicized lists, and the hopeful hearts of those waiting to return to work. Soon, we hope, the reviews will be in, and we’ll see whether this rollercoaster ride was worth the price of admission.