
Jessica Chastain at the Venice Film Festival, (Getty Images)
“Actors are often made to keep quiet in order to protect future working opportunities”, said the oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain in an interview at the Venice Film Festival. “When you work and exist in an environment that continually grinds you down over the years, fighting back seems like an enormous challenge”, is what the actor expressed. She spoke candidly about her fear of speaking out at the Venice International Film Festival press conference for her new film Memory.
“I was very nervous about coming, ” Chastain said, in an interview given to Variety, before elaborating that “there were actually some people on my team who advised me against it”. As a part of SAG-AFTRA’S strike policies, in addition to stopping all on-camera and behind the scenes work, actors are prohibited from promoting the world created under their union contract.
About 11,500 writers, represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) walked off the job on May 2 and have been on a strike since then. Then 160,000 actors under the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio artists (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike as well on July 14. Both are stuck in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood studios and several other production companies.

Strikers outside of Paramount Pictures, (Getty Images)
Production on television and movies has ground to a halt as a result, and there´s no clear end in sight. According to the Associated Press late night television shows were also put on halt. Some in mid-production like Ridley Scott's “Gladiator”, the sequel to “Deadpool 3” and studios are planning to push completed films until 2024. Warner Bros moved the release date of “Dune 2” from November to March 2024 and the new “Lord of the Rings” movie to December of 2024.
In August, the actors Union, which represents more than 150,000 television and movie performers, granted interim agreements to a select number of TV and filmed projects that are considered “truly independent” to continue production.
"When independent producers like the ones here of these films sign these interim agreements, they are letting the world know and letting the AMPTP that actors deserve fair compensation, AI protections should be implemented, and there should be sharing of streaming revenue." With this she closed her speech and hopes that her attendance in the festival encourages other independent producers and actors to show up and publicly support.
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