George Clooney & Others Bold $150M Plan To Resolve Strike Looks Grim
George Clooney and other Hollywood superstars hoped to help resolve the SAG-AFTRA strike ... but it looks like their plan didn't quite shake out.
Shortly after news broke that Clooney and 15 other industry A-listers wanted to provide $150 million to speed negotiations between the actors' guild and the Alliance of Television and Motion Picture Producers (or the AMPTP), Variety reported that the proposal appears to have fallen flat.
According to Variety, anonymous sources revealed that Clooney and fellow actors like Tyler Perry, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, and Ben Affleck spoke to the guild last night, with one saying, "It didn't go well." The plan, which SAG-AFTRA members apparently didn't love, was that the guild would no longer put a cap on annual dues, which currently stands at $1 million. The coalition of 15 stars apparently believed that if these higher-earning actors paid more, the guild could net $150 million over three years. The coalition of A-listers reportedly brought this plan to leadership in response to recent talks between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP breaking down, and they hoped their idea could help get both parties back to the table.
David Jolliffe, who is on SAG-AFTRA's negotiating committee, said that the pitch simply doesn't solve any of the larger issues between the guild and major studios. "I'll reach out to George to talk to him," Jolliffe commented. "We appreciate everybody's help. Everybody has ideas. But we've been doing this for almost a year now."
The SAG-AFTRA strike is still going strong, despite this $150 million plan
The sad fact here is that the proposal offered by George Clooney and his coalition of stars may have done more harm than good. Variety spoke to two SAG-AFTRA members — president of the Los Angeles local Jodi Long and negotiating committee member Frances Fisher — and while neither wanted to comment on Clooney's plan, they both expressed wishes that more stars would simply show up on the picket lines to offer their support. Another source told the outlet, "I think it's pretty tough for [SAG-AFTRA] to not acknowledge that [the A-listers] witnessed their thinking and their strategy and didn't come away from it thinking, 'OK they've got this. They've they got a plan.'"
The guild is still fighting against the AMPTP over issues like residuals from streaming, and after studios said that a 2% cut for actors would be entirely too much money for them to spare, talks reportedly stopped entirely. It has been reported that SAG-AFTRA will release a statement soon regarding the fact that negotiations are currently stalled, but in the meantime, it definitely seems like the strike will keep going. SAG-AFTRA officially began their strike in July, joining the WGA on the picket lines; the WGA has since struck a deal with the AMPTP.
This piece was written during 2023's SAG-AFTRA strike. To learn more about why actors are currently on strike, click here for an up-to-date explainer from our Looper team.