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Bryan Cranston addressed Disney boss Bob Iger during a passionate strike speech in New York City on Tuesday.
The Breaking Bad star — speaking at the “Rock the City for a Fair Contract” SAG-AFTRA rally — declared: “We’ve got a message for Mr. Iger: I know, sir, that you look at things through a different lens. We don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask you to hear us, and beyond that to listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots. We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living. And lastly, and most importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity!”
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Cranston was one of several well-known performers taking the stage at the rally, where the union is pushing studios to give actors a piece of streaming subscription revenue and establish guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence, among other demands. While Iger has recently become a major target for actors and writers embarking on their first joint walkout in decades after his recent comments calling the strikers “not realistic” while attending a billionaires’ retreat.
Ellen star Joely Fisher told the crowd, “I’m on the negotiating committee. We spent 35 days across from those motherfuckers,” she said. “The last time the writers and actors went on strike it was in 1960, and we got a little thing called residuals and a health plan and a pension plan, so I expect big fucking things from this time around. We do not take this lightly. We are on the right side of history. Hey, [studio negotiators], we’re ready to rumble. You will not bleed us out! Let us know when you come to your senses. Here’s to a hot guild summer.”
In another spirited speech, Succession actor Arian Moayed said, “It’s like these people haven’t seen fucking Succession! — it’s about you. The most important thing we can do right now as a unit, as a group, is to keep together. … United we will beat them.”
The Good Fight star Christine Baranski declared, “If this industry can generate millions, hundreds of millions, in compensation for those at the top, it can afford to share the wealth. We will not live under corporate feudalism. It is time to make things right. Our contribution will not be undervalued, and we will not be replaced.”
Avatar actor Stephen Lang talked about being moved by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s speeches and reasoning for the walkout. “Two qualities stood out quite starkly: First, a moral and altogether well-earned sense of righteous indignation at the purposely obtuse, disrespectful, uncaring and irresponsible attitude of those sitting across the negotiating table,” he said. “‘Shame on them,’ she said. Shame, indeed. The other quality was her profound sense of sadness that it has come to this. So many lives will be damaged, so many careers stalled or shattered; families already working hard to make ends meet enduring further harm and degradation … all of them caught up in this maelstrom of inequality brought about by organized corporate greed … at this moment in time, we are civilization’s rational voice.”
The actors strike is entering its second week, with thousands halting work. SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members include actors, but also broadcast journalists, program hosts and others, so while all work under the film and TV agreement is now off-limits, some members are working under other union contracts that are still in effect.
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