Writers and actors are missing new shows and movies as much as we are

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Being rested has never been more stressful for writer and producer Felicia Pride.

Pride, whose work includes credits on shows like “Queen Sugar” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” is one of the roughly 175,000 entertainment professionals across two unions – the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA – who is on strike.

While the public has been missing their favorite shows, those on the picket lines are, too. They’re also missing the simple peace that came with being able to do their jobs.

“It’s interesting because sometimes you don’t know where the stress is coming from. Like, of course, it’s like obvious, right?,” Pride said. “It’s the uncertainty of what will the business look like on the other side of this?”

There’s also a “collective anxiety,” she said, because “your friends who are going through it too.”

The Writers Guild of America returns to the bargaining table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) Wednesday in an effort to end at least one of the strikes that have hobbled not only those working in entertainment, but those in industries including hospitality and local businesses that have come to depend on productions.

In the case of both the writers and the actors unions they are seeking better compensation, better working conditions and protections from artificial intelligence that they fear could be used to put them out of work. The issues are so pressing that those striking say they are willing to continue to do so to convince studios and streamers that it needs to be resolved.

But on the consumer side, the indefinite hold on production has left a question mark where the Fall TV schedule once was and a hole that feels larger with every movie release delay.

They want their shows back on”

Corey Scales, a writer who has been trying to break into the industry, is surprised the strike hadn’t happened earlier.

“These feelings have been going on for a while in terms of people not being paid fairly,” he told CNN. “There have been a lot of writers who have really putting their all in and when they share (images of) their residual checks it looks like something out of high school, like when you’re doing a part-time job.”

Scales said that in addition to the jobs like working for Lyft he’s had to do to make ends meet, he’s been taking the time to focus on his other types of writing including comics and magazines to feed his creativity and hopefully generate additional income.

Scales said one of his scripts had attracted the attention of a studio and he was reworking it based on their feedback when the strike began. Trying to get into a writers room full time was a struggle before the strikes, and he doesn’t envision that things will change anytime soon despite ongoing negotiations, he said.

“[Studios and streamers] keep wanting to sit down and have talks, but the stuff they’re bringing to the writers is outright laughable,” Scales said. “We understand it’s a business, but there’s no motivation to want to keep going if literally you’re having the rug yanked out from under you.”

Josh Rhett Noble feels the same way about the actors.

Having transitioned from Broadway to TV and movie work, he said he understands that some of the public may see big stars picketing and believe “that we’re all millionaires and that we’re just whining because we want more money on top of our millions.”

“And that that could not be farther from the truth,” said Noble who is based in Atlanta. “I mean, obviously there are those famous stars such as the Brad Pitts, the Angelina Jolie, and that’s the 1%.”

While he’s grateful for the major celebs using their platforms to support the strikes, he’s hoping viewers will be patient and supportive.

“It is hard because a lot of people, they want their shows back on. They want to be able to enjoy the things that they digest, the arts that they love,” Noble said. “But they don’t understand how much work goes into it and how we are so much like the rest of the country, paycheck to paycheck. And that’s a huge portion of what the strike is about.”

“We’re trying to make a livelihood with the art that we create”

LaNisa Renee Frederick is an actor who also got her start in the theater and has appeared in some high profile projects opposite major stars including Kevin Hart.

Along with her best friend Danielle Pinnock, who stars on the hit CBS series “Ghosts,” she has garnered quite a bit of internet fame as well with their social media account Hashtag Booked which satirically sends up being Black in the industry.

Like Noble, Frederick said she’s disturbed by some believing that the driving force behind the strikes is a money grab for writers and performers – especially given the fact that so many SAG-AFTRA and WGA members struggled prior to the strikes just to make a livable wage.

“It’s really about, ‘Hey we’re trying to make a livelihood with the art that we create and with our profession,’” she said. “I consider myself now a middle class actor. And with that, just like any other profession out there, the middle class has fallen, and it is very easy for us to be one paycheck away from not being able to make rent, from not being able to pay health insurance.”

To Frederick that makes those in her field no different from the people they entertain.

“It’s bigger than just us. It’s a representation, I think, of so much,” she said. “Art is always a reflection of society. So it’s a reflection of what we as a society are facing in terms of just trying to make a decent income and livelihood.”

The new pandemic

New shows and movies might be on hold, but comedian and actress Del Harrison does see a small, creative silver lining.

“I do feel the strike has birthed a lot of independent projects,” Harrison said. “I have my own special [“From the Mouth of a Black Woman”] that I’m able to now push. It’s making people birth the independent things they wouldn’t have been able to do, because we were all out here auditioning before.”

Having sometimes up to four auditions in one day, Harrison said she was often too tired to do more. The slowdown has allowed her time for other creative endeavors.

It’s not unlike when three years ago, the industry was forced to make due amid the beginning of the global pandemic.

“I was thinking to myself the other day that the strike is like the new pandemic, but ain’t nobody sick,” she joked to CNN. “We’re forced to be in the house, but at least this time we can go outside,” she joked.

Harrison has been doing standup for more than 18 years and has parlayed that into both acting gigs and viral videos.

While she’s had roles in mainstream projects like the Hulu series “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” Harrison said she’s relying on the self sufficiency she’s long had being an independent performer who doesn’t have her own TV show or film.

She’s seen many of her fellow performers doing the same, she said, because not only aren’t people allowed to work, but they also can’t promote any projects they have completed.

“We definitely want to be able to get back to work, but while we can’t, so many people I know have birthed these other sides of themselves in this new pandemic, and it’s been good,” she said.

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