From our correspondent in Los Angeles,
It’s an address – 5800 Sunset boulevard – legendary in LA Look towards the hills, and you see the letters of the Hollywood sign. On the south side, it is the long white facade of the former studios of the Warner brothers. It’s there that The Jazz Singer, considered the first talking picture, was made in 1927. But old Hollywood is dying. A red “N” and a giant billboard for the series The Witcher now overlook this crossroads.
In front of the offices of Netflix, actors on strike give voice. A total of 160,000 members of the powerful SAG-AFTRA union, led by Fran Drescher, joined the screenwriters on July 13 to shut down Hollywood. They are calling for an increase in the remuneration for streaming, more accessible health coverage and safeguards against the technological progress of generative AI, now able to clone their voice or their image. With fear summed up by Andy Cohen, a young comedian who landed roles in episodes of Grey’s Anatomy or of Ray Donovan “If we don’t defend middle class actors, there won’t be the next Tom Cruise, Viola Davis or Denzel Washington. »
Their testimonies can be found in our video report above