A-Listers Show Support for Imminent SAG Strike

From Matt Damon to Jamie Lee Curtis to Emily Blunt and Jeremy Renner these Hollywood heavyweights are supporting union workers

With this vote, Hollywood has essentially shut down, as actors will join writers picketing studios for better deals. Filming will come to a halt, as will promotional events — including any interviews, junkets, premieres and events like Comic-Con.

Hollywood actors are preparing to strike and A-listers are showing their support.

SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) is on the verge of a strike after the AMPTP (American Motion Picture and Television Producers) representing studios and production companies failed to come to an agreement.

Ahead of the impending shutdown, many stars are speaking out on the importance of the strike.

You CANNOT replicate that with a machine.

Jamie Lee Curtis took to Instagram to share some BTS shots of the new Haunted Mansion movie, while also sharing her support.

“I see a strike in my crystal ball. 🔮,” she wrote, alluding to her character, Madame Leota. “The souls of ghosts of performers long past urging us in this modern moment to fight for our rights to exist as creators.”

“Since we will all stop utilizing social media to promote work that we are on strike for, this is my last offering from the wonderful new Disney movie @hauntedmansion and ironic because in order to put Madame Leota inside her crystal ball and trap her there for hundreds of years, they used a digital technique which was a first for me, acting with my head in a vise, but the results are magnificent,” she continued. “A great combination of acting AND technology. What I will say is that although I AM computer generated, it is FROM my PERFORMANCE, my sense of comedic timing and you CANNOT replicate that with a machine. I stand STRONG with my union @sagaftra.”

Jeremy Renner also gave a shorter, but still impactful, message on his Instagram Story, which read, “A necessary Change,” along with a picture of SAG-AFTRA picket signs.

The Oppenheimer cast also chimed in on the strike, noting how important it is to come to a fair agreement.

Emily Blunt shared her support, noting that the cast will walk away from their premiere in support of the strike.

“I think right now we are just sort of … I hope everyone makes a fair deal and we are here to celebrate this movie. And if they call it, we’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone … We are gonna have to. We are gonna have to. We will see what happens. Right now it’s the joy to be together,” she said on the red carpet.

Matt Damon also spoke about the potential strike, sharing how important it is to “protect the people on the margins.”

“26,000 bucks a year is what you have to make to get your health insurance, and there are a lot of people who residual payments are what carry them across that threshold,” he explained. “If those residual payments dry up, so does their healthcare, and that’s absolutely unacceptable.”

“We can’t have that, so we got to figure out something that is fair,” continued Damon. “Anyway, we’ll see where it goes. Nobody wants a work stoppage… It’s painful for every other guild. Really painful for IATSE and all our brothers and sisters there, nobody wants that, but we [have] to work under contracts that are fair.”

Other celebs took to Twitter to support the union, including Yvette Nicole Brown, Devon Sawa, and Ethan Embry.

Brown shared an article concerning the strike, and the actress noted that she will be in the meeting to determine if there will be a strike.

“I am on the ⁦@sagaftra National Board. I will be in the meeting at 9am. #UnionStrong ✊🏾,” she shared.

“In the last 24 hours people who make tens of millions off the characters we create shared gleeful stories with the press about not negotiating until our homes have been lost and we hit rock bottom,” wrote Embry. “Consider that before you pay your next subscription or watch a summer blockbuster.”

Sawa also noted that the strikes aren’t just a fun photo-op for the workers.

“We’re on strike. Just a heads up, this isn’t a party. A lot of us don’t want to be on a strike, we are doing it for a reason. If you’re going down to the picket line just to meet and greet and get a couple cool pics for the gram, you ain’t us,” wrote the actor.