Tom Cruise reportedly tried to use his major cache in Hollywood to broker an agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
On Monday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Cruise joined a June negotiating session via Zoom to advocate for the 160,000-member union’s positions on artificial intelligence protections and issues affecting the guild’s stunt performers.
The “Top Gun” actor also reportedly warned representatives of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists about the impact a strike could have on the movie theater market, which is still recovering from its pandemic-driven slump.
Looking for middle ground, he told the guild to consider letting talent promote projects, but not film, if a work stoppage did occur.
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Sources who were there for the meeting described the exchange as “uncomfortable” to THR.
SAG-AFTRA initiated a strike Thursday after their current contract expired in the middle of negotiations between the union and the AMPTP. They joined TV and film writers to demand fair pay and improved working conditions in the streaming era.
The strike bars actors from working on any productions, in addition to a ban from any “conventions, interviews, tours or promotion via social media of any struck work or struck companies.”
This means Cruise won’t be doing additional press for his blockbuster sequel “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” which has taken in $80 million at domestic box offices since its debut last week.
Meanwhile, U.K. production on the film’s sequel has been completely halted by the strike.
Picket lines of actors and writers buzzed around studios in Los Angeles and New York on Friday.
Meanwhile, outside Netflix’s LA headquarters, Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, told press, “We are the victims here and they’re doing bad things to good people. They’re not willing to share in their wealth and change contracts to accommodate the new business model.”