Actors Riz Ahmed & Molly Gordon To Skip Locarno Due to SAG-AFTRA Strike

As the first major international film festival mounted following SAG-AFTRTA’s decision to join the WGA in strike action against the studios, there was much speculation about how the Locarno Film Festival would adapt its lineup. 

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor This article first appeared as part of Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter – to subscribe for early content and weekly updates on all things acting, visit the Acting Up signup page. With dual strikes currently underway, it’s an uncertain time for actors – and this is a profession that is used to uncertainty. Many aren’t just wondering about when their next job will be, but how they can afford rent, utilities and health care.

Sarah Silverman is letting her feelings be known.

Will Smith is speaking out about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

Sarah Silverman isn’t holding anything back about the actors who are working during the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Will Smith put a high-profile spotlight today on his fellow actors and scribes out on strike.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Prince Royal, an actor in Los Angeles, was working as an extra on “The Flash” when he was directed to a tractor trailer to “take pictures.” Inside were hundreds of cameras. He stood with his arms up as the operators took a 3-D scan, which he was told would be used for continuity and special effects. “We were told if we didn’t do it, we’d be sent home without pay,” he said.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer The perils of artificial intelligence to the entertainment industry came to San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, with SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland joining a panel of voice actors organized by NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, to discuss the specific hazards AI is already posing to the profession. “We’ve got to reject the idea that this is just something that’s going to happen to us and we can’t say anything about it,” Crabtree-Ireland said at the outset of the panel, about whether AI could devastate the entertainment industry. “I think it definitely could, the question is whether we’re going to let that happen.”

Challengers,” starring Zendaya, which had been set as the Venice Film Festival opener, has been pulled from the festival due to promotional complications prompted by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Venice has announced that the sexy sports comedy — in which Zendaya plays a former tennis prodigy turned coach entangled in a love triangle with two pro tennis players, played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist — has changed its distribution strategy. The film’s promotion has been disrupted by the current actors strike, which prohibits SAG-AFTRA union members from doing any type of promotional activity. This means Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist would not have been able to launch the film on Aug. 30 on the Venice red carpet.

EXCLUSIVE: Andor will be forced to temporarily pause its Season 2 shoot as it becomes the latest major victim of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone will not be attending the closing night of this year’s Outfest LA, where they were set to receive the James Schamus Ally Award. The couple was expected to be on hand for the July 23 event at The Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood, but their rep tells Variety that will not make an appearance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. “We understand that Melissa and Ben are unable to join us for our closing night due to the strike,” Outfest executive director Damien S. Navarro said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We will miss them, as our closing night will be a wonderful celebration of our community.”

Another actor has come out in support of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike — and is opening up about why it matters to him.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In March, several months before SAG-AFTRA actors went on the warpath in Hollywood, Italy’s dubbing industry workers staged a protracted strike demanding higher wages, less frenzied work conditions and protection against artificial intelligence. The Italian dubbing industry workers – many of whom are voice actors – returned to work after three weeks as local unions entered a phase of negotiations that seemed promising enough, even though their issues are not yet resolved. Cut to the present day. Italian unions representing the country’s film and TV industry workers are at “a very critical, almost historic juncture” in a broader labor dispute with the country’s motion picture association ANICA and other industry trade orgs, according to Sabina Di Marco, leader of SLC CGIL, the biggest union at the bargaining table.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. actors union Equity has planned rallies in London and Manchester to support the SAG-AFTRA strike. The org revealed on Tuesday that it will hold a demonstration in London’s Leicester Square and Manchester’s Media City at 12 p.m. on Friday (July 21). Speakers at the London rally will include Equity general secretary Paul W. Fleming, Equity president Lynda Rooke and MP John McDonnell. The events will also feature “speakers from the entertainment industry and trade union movement.” “In our sister union’s fight we stand in unwavering solidarity, and we will not allow the U.K. to become a back door to undermine the strike,” said Equity in a statement.

UK actors union Equity is to rally in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA later this week in London and Manchester.

The Haunted Mansion world premiere at Disneyland was the first major movie premiere affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike. None of the on-screen talent was at the event but director Justin Simien did address the elephant in the room.

San Diego Comic-Con had Hall H had been reserved two Saturdays from now for a presentation by Legendary, which I hear was to strut out Dune: Part Two and the studio’s next Monsterverse movie. However, that’s not happening now due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

It’s Day 1 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 75 of the WGA strike.

Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle is urging stage actors to “proactively and aggressively avoid breaking” the SAG-AFTRA strike by inadvertently accepting struck work.

Sophia Scorziello editor “Deadpool 3” has stopped filming as the SAG-AFTRA strike gets underway, with performers joining Writers Guild of America members on the picket lines. The Marvel sequel is one of the first major productions to be impacted by the new strike. News of the production suspension comes only days after “Deadpool 3” provided audiences with a first look at the set, releasing a photograph of stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman suited up as Deadpool and Wolverine, respectively. News also recently broke that Jennifer Garner would appear in the film as Elektra, having previously starred in the role in 2003’s “Daredevil” and the 2005 spinoff film “Elektra.”