Britain’s performing arts union plans two rallies on Friday as it warns Hollywood studios not to exploit what it calls a “back door” to circumvent the actors’ strike by relocating shoots to the UK.
The Equity union, which represents 47,000 entertainment workers, said in a statement it will hold rallies in London and Manchester in solidarity with the Screen Actors Guild, which started a strike last week. Sean of the Dead and Mission Impossible actor Simon Pegg postponed a film screening out of respect for the US walkout and will attend an Equity event, he said on his Instagram page.
The rallies are meant to support Hollywood actors and writers, who are on strike simultaneously for the first time in six decades over issues including compensation from streaming and the use of artificial intelligence. However, the practical impact of Equity’s gesture is limited, and for now the UK entertainment sector is largely continuing with business as usual.
“In the event that something was to move here, we would not be wanting our members to take that work,” Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming said by phone. “Producers should be alive to the fact that we are industrial action ready,” he said, citing a recent dispute in London’s West End theater district.
While a small number of productions in Britain have been paused because they feature American actors on SAG contracts, much of the planned and current work is done on contracts with Equity, which doesn’t have the legal authority to strike without a ballot, according to Fleming.
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The US strikes have already halted work on dozens of Hollywood productions and will become far more disruptive if they continue. Studios could turn to Britain as a convenient alternative with a common language and large entertainment industry infrastructure. Movies including some in the Star Wars franchise and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s Barbie have been filmed in part at studios in London’s suburbs.
“We will endeavor to take all reasonable, legal steps to prevent the United Kingdom being used as a back door to undermine or avoid the dispute,” Equity said in the statement.
Co-Productions
The strikes are already affecting negotiations around new British shows, according to Channel Four Television Corp., one of the UK’s biggest commissioners of independent TV. Channel 4 commissioned the first two seasons of Black Mirror, as well as Succession creator Jesse Armstrong’s breakthrough comedy Peep Show.
In recent years, entertainment businesses have increasingly pooled resources to bear the spiraling costs of original content. That funding model could be disrupted by the US strikes, according to Channel 4 Chief Content Officer Ian Katz.
“There’s obviously a problem around co-production partners in the States for projects that are getting up and running around now,” Katz said at a press conference earlier this month. “So a lot of UK writers — either out of a feeling of solidarity with their colleagues in the States or concerns about not being able to work in the States — don’t want to be involved in any conversations with US platforms.”
However, the strikes could mean some opportunity for UK producers as US media companies face a lack of content, according to Max Rumney, deputy chief executive officer of the UK’s Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television, a trade group for independent TV and filmmakers. British studios could potentially sell shows across the Atlantic for slightly more than usual, Rumney said.
SAG didn’t respond to a request for comment.