Oppenheimer Stars Walk Out Of Premiere As SAG Goes On Strike!
14.07.2023 - 00:05
/ perezhilton.com
Well, it’s begun. SAG-AFTRA officially began their strike on Thursday after negotiations with the studios broke down.
Being on strike doesn’t just mean actors can’t act. It also means they can’t do promo — one of the more labor-intensive parts of their job. No press junkets, interviews in support of the movie, no Jimmy Kimmel, no Hot Ones, no Emmys, no Comic-Con, no red carpet, nada.
The first casualty? The premiere of Oppenheimer.
While the strike technically begins at midnight, El Lay time, we learned from director Christopher Nolan that his stars had walked out of the premiere the moment the decision was official. Nolan confirmed Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt left. It’s unclear if the other stars in attendance, including Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr., followed suit. But with the vote to strike hitting a reported 98% we imagine they were all very much in support. They had just enough time to pose on the red carpet and then…
BYE!
The studio was almost certainly relying on the unbelievably star-studded cast to sell this film, and now they can say goodbye to that. We’d guess Oppenheimer is going to be hurt far more than Barbie, which hilariously comes out the same day, as the brand name recognition of the A-bomb inventor is marginally less. But obviously not having viral TV interviews and internet videos with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling is going to hurt that film’s hype, too.
Related: Stars Show Support For WGA Strike!
Yes, the studios have really shot themselves in the foot on this one — and for what? Greed? The unwillingness to ensure actors (and writers before them) continue to be fairly compensated as the industry evolves? As Matt Damon pointed out when asked about the strike on the Oppenheimer