Actor Bryan Cranston excoriated Hollywood executives and singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger on Tuesday for the use of artificial intelligence in the film and television industries as actors in Hollywood have gone on strike.
Cranston appeared at the SAG-AFTRA “Rock the City For a Fair Contract” rally in Times Square, New York. Earlier this month, Iger said on CNBC that the demands from actors and writers were not realistic, saying, “I understand any labor organizations’ desire to work on the behalf of its members to get the most compensation and to be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver. There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic. And they are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing that is quite frankly very disruptive and dangerous.”
“I find it very ironic that we are all gathered here today in unity in front of an entity that is run by Disney,” Cranston preached. “We’ve got a message for Mr. Iger: I know, sir, that you look through things in a different lens. We don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask you to hear us and beyond that to listen to us when we tell you: We will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots.”
“We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living,” he continued, declaring, “And lastly and more importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity.”
"Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston slammed the use of AI during a SAG-AFTRA rally: "We will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots." https://t.co/6e4gSI6jpw pic.twitter.com/uMWqnyj63t
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 26, 2023
Claiming that “our industry has changed exponentially,” Cranston added, “We are not in the same business model that we were even 10 years ago. And yet, even though they admit that that is the truth in today’s economy, they are fighting us tooth and nail to stick to the same economic system that is outmoded, outdated. They want us to step back in time. We cannot and we will not do that.”
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SAG-AFTRA’s contract expired with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in mid-July. The actors’ strike immediately followed; SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher claimed, “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity. You are systematically trying to figure out ways to carve us out of what is due us. Shame on you!”
Prior to the actors’ strike, writers in Hollywood began a strike on May 2.