The Reason Why We Don't See Big Actors Picketing Might Be Extremely Simple
In fact, their involvement could harm the cause of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA for short, went on strike on July 14, 2023. With the actors' and the writers' strikes currently in full swing, there is no clear prospect for when the industry crisis will come to an end.
Following the SAG-AFTRA strike announcement, hundreds of actors walked out to protest unfair minimum wages and streaming residuals and to resist the use of artificial intelligence to replace background actors. But despite the overwhelming majority of Hollywood's stars expressing their support for the strike, virtually none of them have shown up on the picket lines.
According to Variety, this has caused obvious concern among their lesser-known colleagues. Members of the SAG-AFTRA point out that if at least some A-listers openly join the protests, they would immediately draw much more media attention and urge the producers to address the actors' demands as fast as possible.
However, it looks like the issue is a bit more complicated as it seems. According to some industry experts, if some of the famous actors had joined the strike, it would actually harm the cause in the eyes of the general public. You see, there is a 'perception problem' where most people see A-list actors as ultimately rich and not in the right position to complain about unfair wages and residuals.
That is to say that, even if Tom Cruise would show up on the picket lines to support lesser-known actors, people would think the star is only worried about his own fortune — and, as we all know, Cruise is indeed incredibly rich and makes most of his money from cinematic releases, so the streaming residuals issue doesn't apply to him.
Another thing is a matter of taste for the A-list stars. Clearly, picket lines are not a red carpet event, but they would still be expected to wear makeup and look good, drawing the attention away from the strike's cause.
Even though many in the general public believe that actors have nothing to complain about in terms of their wages, this is certainly not the case, especially for those actors who make a living by starring in shows for popular streaming services.
Perhaps, instead of physically showing up for picketing, big-names actors could be more vocal online, expressing their support and pushing the industry to change before it suffers even greater damage from the SAG-AFTRA protests.