The SAG-AFTRA Strike Is Officially Over!

For 118 days scores of striking actors have held the line, now they can finally say their lines once more. That’s right: SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, has reached a tentative agreement on a new and improved three-year contract with studios!

Since mid-July, SAG-AFTRA has been at the bargaining table in part to “protect the digital likeness, voice, and performance simulations of its members.” The union also sought better contracts for actors working for studios like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon—those that almost exclusively publish streaming content. Until now, contracts at said “new media” outlets didn’t grant actors residuals based on how often their shows are rewatched as they have for syndicated TV shows.

“Today’s tentative agreement represents a new paradigm,” the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said in a statement on Wednesday night. “It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence; and sizable contract increases on items across the board.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, SAG-AFTRA sent a message to its members after the pact was reached that outlined its value ($1 billion). Not only will there be pay increases, “streaming participation bonus,” and regulations on AI, but the tentative agreement stipulates for higher caps on health and pension funds, greater compensation for background performers and “critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities.”

Now, the who’s who of Hollywood is celebrating. Take Jeremy Allen White, who found out the good news at the premiere of A24’s The Iron Claw. “That’s amazing,” he proclaimed in this extremely wholesome video. “It makes me feel incredible… I don’t know the details of the deal but I’m sure SAG got what we wanted.”

Others heralded the news in their own… special ways. LaKeith Stanfield, for instance, expressed his happiness via a since-deleted sloppy makeout selfie with his wife, Kasmere Trice.

While it was fun seeing all the hot people protesting—I will remember with singular fondness the sight of Colin Farrell on the picket line—it’s even better to witness them getting what they deserve.

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