Julia Louis-Dreyfus Talks Possible SAG-AFTRA Strike, Says More Actors Should Be Able to ‘Make a Living Wage’

Billy Ray and Todd Garner are back for Week 6 of the Writers Guild standoff on Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. Click below to listen.

Podcrushed” podcast. “I felt very small.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus opened up about working with "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini on one of his final films before his death in June 2013 at the age of 51. The 62-year-old actress starred opposite the late actor in the 2013 romantic-comedy "Enough Said" in which they played a pair of divorcees who fall in love.  Louis-Dreyfus, who had never met Gandofini prior to filming the movie, recalled how he was very different from the ruthless mob boss he portrayed for six seasons in the hit HBO series.

SAG-AFTRA and the studios have begun negotiations for a new film and TV contract. The talks, which got underway Wednesday morning at the Sherman Oaks offices of the studios’ reps the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, come two days after the guild’s members voted 97.9% in favor of authorizing a strike if an acceptable deal isn’t reached by the end of the month.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA began negotiations with the major studios on Wednesday, and the two sides have already agreed on one thing: they won’t be talking to the media about it. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA said they will adhere to a media blackout for the duration of talks. “Today, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP began formal negotiations for a new contract, and with the agreement that neither organization will comment to the media about the negotiations during the process,” they said in a joint statement.

SAG-AFTRA, which begins negotiations for a new contract on Wednesday, said today that its bargaining strategy remains unchanged in the wake of the tentative deal made last night by the Directors Guild and the studios.

SAG-AFTRA members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if upcoming contract talks fail to produce a satisfactory agreement by June 30. The vote revealed Monday was 97.91% in favor, with nearly half of eligible members — 47.69% — casting ballots. According to the union, nearly 65% of eligible members voted.

released a memo to members of the actors guild congratulating the Directors Guild of America on reaching a tentative agreement on a new labor contract while noting that such a deal will have no impact on SAG-AFTRA’s own labor talks beginning this week. “Our bargaining strategy has never relied upon nor been dependent on the outcome or status of any other union’s negotiations, nor do we subscribe to the philosophy that the terms of deals made with other unions bind us,” the memo reads.

Voting yes is NOT a vote to strike. It gives the board the POWER to strike if the AMPTP doesn’t agree to the essential contract improvements our members need.We’re a union, and a union stands together! pic.twitter.com/aSdTvb23WNThe guild is set to begin talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on June 7.

A group of SAG-AFTRA members, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jean Smart and Bob Balaban, has released a video urging their fellow performers to approve the strike authorization that’s currently out for a vote of the guild’s eligible members.

A24’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus-starrer You Hurt My Feelings will top an estimated $1.7 million in limited nationwide release for the four-day holiday weekend, at the high end of expectations on 912 screens. That puts it at no. 8 at a domestic box office where Little Mermaid is making all the waves.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues with no end in sight, rumours are swirling that the Directors Guild of America and SAG-ACTRA will be following suit when those unions’ contracts come up within the next few weeks.

Enough Said, to spin small-scale moral conflict into sharply observed, well-constructed comedy in You Hurt My Feelings (★★★★☆).In their previous outing, Louis-Dreyfus sparkled onscreen opposite James Gandolfini, playing an L.A. divorcée who discovers that the divorcé she’s dating happens to be recently divorced from the woman who’s become her new best friend.

“It was a contributor to the specialty box office, and I hope it will be again,” says Laemmle CEO Greg Laemmle of MoviePass, the subscription service that unsurprisingly went bankrupt in early 2020 after offering a movie a day for ten bucks a month.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is remembering the good and bad moments on the hit comedy show "Seinfeld." After making fans laugh for nearly a decade, the actress recalled the overwhelming emotion she felt when the sitcom came to a final close. "There was a real grief period when the show ended that was real and felt," she said in an interview with People. "Because we all loved each other so much." The "Veep" star continued to recall how the dynamic between her co-stars reflected off-screen just as much as on-screen.

 aired its final episode 25 years ago this month. The show and its lovable characters had not only become household names after nine glorious seasons on NBC, the show and its star-studded cast forever etched their names in pop culture lore and is now considered one of the greatest shows in television history.But there was also a sense of grief, and it was a feeling Julia Louis-Dreyfus says washed over her when the show aired the series finale in May 1998, drawing a whopping 76 million viewers. In the latest cover story, Louis-Dreyfus recalled her emotions after the hit show that launched her career came to an end.«There was a real grief period when the show ended that was real and felt,» she tells the outlet.

EXCLUSIVE: Back in 2009, Quentin Tarantino began dropping hints that he’d be outta the movie-making business by the time he reached 60.

When Julia Louis-Dreyfus tied the knot with husband Brad Hall in 1987, she looked across the pond for inspiration when it came to her wedding gown.

“Isn’t it weird that I keep making my plots revolve around this?” Nicole Holofcener asks with a laugh. We’re talking about her new film “You Hurt My Feelings” (in theaters Friday), but we’re also talking about her very first feature, the wonderful “Walking and Talking,” in which a key moment of emotional turmoil occurs when a character accidentally overhears what another character really thinks of them.

EXCLUSIVE: In a seismic development for the indie film sector, bond companies are refusing to insure movies ahead of a potential SAG-AFTRA strike from July 1.