Life

LGBTQ+ actors get loud about the massive Hollywood strikes

Like the WGA, actors are fighting for better pay in the streaming era. They also have some big name LGBTQ+ actors supporting them.
By
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 14: Members of the Hollywood actors SAG-AFTRA union walk a picket line near an image of "Don't Forget the Lyrics" host Niecy Nash outside of FOX Studios on the first day of the actors' strike on July 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest union which represents actors and other media professionals, joined striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers in the first joint walkout against the studios since 1960. The strike could shut down Hollywood productions completely with writers in the third month of their strike against the Hollywood studios.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 14: Members of the Hollywood actors SAG-AFTRA union walk a picket line near an image of "Don't Forget the Lyrics" host Niecy Nash outside of FOX Studios on the first day of the actors' strike on July 14, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest union which represents actors and other media professionals, joined striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers in the first joint walkout against the studios since 1960. The strike could shut down Hollywood productions completely with writers in the third month of their strike against the Hollywood studios. Photo: Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

LGBTQ+ actors are speaking out in support of the current SAG-AFTRA strike that has essentially brought Hollywood to a standstill.

Last Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — the union representing film and television actors — approved a strike after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood studios, ended without a deal on a new contract. Since Friday, actors have been picketing alongside members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who went on strike in May. Like screenwriters, actors are demanding better working conditions and livable wages for working artists who may not be household names.

Related:

Wanda Sykes, Joel Kim Booster, Lilly Wachowski, other LGBTQ+ stars support writers’ strike

Online streaming has made millions for CEOs while writers’ salaries and job security have shrunk.

But even recognizable actors who’ve appeared on high-profile shows are pointing to the catastrophic effect the streaming boom has had on the residuals — the financial compensation that actors and others involved in TV and film productions traditionally receive from re-runs, syndication, and home media sales — that they used to be able to rely on.

In a recent New Yorker story, the cast of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black revealed how little they made on the show, one of the first major hits of the streaming era. Out actor Lea DeLaria told The New Yorker’s Michael Schulman that her residuals checks for her work on the series are often around $20. Meanwhile, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’s salary is $22 million, the magazine reported.

While picketing in New York last week with his partner and their son, gay actor Anthony Rapp also laid out the impact streaming has had on actors’ residuals checks.

“I did a few episodes of The Knick several years ago and it’s on some form of streaming now and I get like $1.25 in residuals a couple times a year,” he told Variety. “I did a couple episodes of The Good Fight, again, $3 residuals, $1.50 residuals.”

Rapp explained that prior to the last time writers and actors both went on strike in 1960, performers who appeared in hit TV shows never say a penny beyond their base pay, while studios and networks continued to earn millions, in today’s dollars, on their work.

“So that was the first time we were able to make the case, ‘You’re continuing to profit off of the labor that we provided. There would not be these products if it weren’t for our labor, so we should benefit from the continuing service of that,’” he explained. “And yes, streaming, these things live on their services, or they simply take them off, so they don’t have to pay residuals anymore. We’re in an entirely new landscape and the companies have not met us halfway to account for the differences.”

Former child star Mara Wilson, who identifies as bisexual, tweeted on July 13 that she made so little from her voice roles on Netflix’s BoJack Horseman and in Disney’s Big Hero 6 that she has never qualified for SAG-AFTRA’s healthcare benefits.

While not on the picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, other out actors have been busy posting in support of the strike on social media.

And Just Like That’s queer actress Cynthia Nixon recently posted information about the strike as well as SAG-AFTRA’s New York picketing schedule in her Instagram stories, while transgender actress Laverne Cox posted SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s barnburner of a speech announcing the strike, as well as a screenshot of the New Yorker story about her Orange is the New Black castmates.

Gay actors Coleman Domingo and Guy Branum cheered the start of the strike last week with defiantly pithy tweets, while Yellowjackets’ lesbian actress Jasmin Savoy Brown deleted all her previous Instagram posts leaving only a “SAG-AFTRA Strong” image on her grid.

Rapp and his gay Star Trek: Discovery co-star Wilson Cruz both reacted to studios’ responses to the union’s demands with outrage.

Cruz also posted a thread with suggestions of ways that fans can help support actors and writers, who cannot work while on strike.

After Disney CEO Bob Iger described both WGA and SAG-AFTRA demands as “unrealistic” during an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box last week, many out performers and creatives reacted with fury as well.

“The unmitigated gall & arrogance of a small group of multi-millionaires representing multi-billion dollar companies to say the entire field of working-class writers and actors are ‘unrealistic’ because we want to survive and afford rent and put food on our tables,” tweeted Jen Richards, adding that “the vast majority of actors & writers are working class in a very unpredictable industry and barely get by.”

“To the already disgustingly rich it’s ‘unreasonable’ that we want to be able to afford homes and take care of our children or parents if there’s even the possibility that they will make a little less profit tomorrow than they did yesterday,” she continued. “The rich MUST always be getting richer.”

Meanwhile, at the red carpet premiere of Disney’s Haunted Mansion, out director Justin Simien said he would love to have a conversation with Iger about his comments.

“Let me tell you about unrealistic,” Simien told Variety. “Me being a filmmaker is unrealistic, coming from Houston, Texas, gay, Black—that’s unrealistic. And what made me believe I could do that and so many things is watching these movies with these beautiful protagonists who had these unrealistic dreams and to see the journey that it took them to get there. So many artists believe in that dream and contribute to these movies and these products. I would love to talk to him about the reality that we all face as artists to make the impossible happen every day.”

Don't forget to share:
Life
Anthony Rapp Coleman Domingo Cynthia Nixon Hollywood Jen Richards Lea DeLaria SAG-AFTRA WGA strike Wilson Cruz

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

PETA wants to team up with Kid Rock in campaign against Bud Light after he shot up their beer

Previous article

Marjorie Taylor Greene wants anti-LGBTQ+ amendments in a national air travel bill

Next article

More in Life