Ever since the cast of the blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer famously walked out during the July premiere of the film just as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike began, the red carpets of Hollywood’s biggest movies have been conspicuously devoid of actors.
That’s about to change. One of the holiday season’s first major movies, The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has been cleared to allow cast appearances at the premiere later this month. They can also promote the film elsewhere, something that’s also been missing from the airwaves and social media sites in recent months.
The Hollywood actors’ strike generally prevents members from actively promoting struck work on films made with members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which produces the vast majority of content created for movie theaters, TV and streaming services.
But Snakes secured an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA that provides an exception and will allow actors to do promotions as usual if they want to. It could be a model for a small number of future releases.
What Is An Interim Agreement During The Actors’ Strike?
An interim agreement is basically a special deal that allows actors in the union to operate under separate terms from the ones being protested by the strike. As it says on the SAG-AFTRA website, union members may work on and promote these productions without being considered scabs or violating terms of the strike.
SAG-AFTRA runs an updated list of these productions on its website. There are quite a few—more than 900 as of October 30. What union members can do varies depending the agreement. The SAG-AFTRA site notes some agreements allow for actors to work on productions without violating strike orders, while others “may 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.”
Why ‘Snakes’ Is An Exception
SAG-AFTRA began examining requests for work on a case-by-case basis about two weeks after the strike started in mid July. Lionsgate, the producer of Snakes, is not an AMPTP company. Without that membership, the interim agreement snapped into place.
Of course, whether cast members will choose to take advantage of the exception is another matter entirely. Many actors have been on the picket lines and are wary of even appearing to fall out of step with the union.
For instance, Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis, one of the stars of Snakes, received a waiver from SAG-AFTRA in July to resume filming on another movie, G20, amidst the strike. “I love this movie, but I do not feel that it would be appropriate for this production to move forward during the strike,” Davis said in a statement at the time.
But since the interim agreement was put in place on Tuesday, other cast members have begun sharing some content from the film on social media, so at least a few appear game to promote the movie.
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