Tom Cruise, the star of Mission Impossible, urges SAG-AFTRA to rethink letting actors promote their films. His reasoning is that movie theaters are in fragile state. In June, Cruise joined in on a Zoom call negotiating session between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the guild. He urged the AMPTP to listen to the guild’s concerns and support stunt performers, as the guild supports them.
Since the pandemic., Cruise has some concerns about movie theaters. It is not unheard of for a performer to have something to say about the strike. Sometimes, SAG-AFTRA will ask performers to join in on negotiation meetings to get their expertise in the industry. Any member can request to address something in the negotiation, and the guild has the right to evaluate if having the member participate is valuable. In this case, they determined what Cruise had to say was valuable. It is also worth mentioning that no other star of his ranking is participating in these meetings.
SAG-AFTRA had many proposals concerning stunt performers, as the union has 160,000 performers. The union apparently wanted performers to be able to give consent and be compensated appropriately. The union also wants to take some precautions regarding AI generative writing in the industry.
Despite Cruise’s talk, decisions could not be agreed upon five weeks later by July 12 at 11:59 p.m. (the television and unions contract expired this day). Performers began picketing on July 14th, and corporates were withholding their work in Los Angeles and New York. This has delayed and shut down productions, including the new Mission: Impossible.
After the strike started, Cruise asked the union if they would allow actors to promote their movies during the strike. In his opinion, promotions are important to actors, and although he claimed this, he felt uncomfortable saying this to the union.
SAG-AFTRA continues to stay firm on its strike rules.
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