SAG-AFTRA doesn’t agree to studios' “Last, Best & Final” offer

SAG-AFTRA’s historic 116-day strike will see 117, it seems. Earlier today, the union that represents some 160,000 people announced that they are still not in agreement with the AMPTP’s “last, best & final” offer. Apparently, the use of people’s likenesses without permission and compensation remains a sticking point for the actors’ guild.

“This morning, our negotiators formally responded to the AMPTP’s ‘Last, Best & Final’ offer,” SAG posted on social media. “There are several essential items on which we still do not have an agreement, including AI.”

Like the WGA, which took 148 days to secure a fair deal, SAG-AFTRA continues to recoil at the idea of AI-produced cartoon characters performing the tasks of living, breathing, and payable artists. And also deceased ones. On the subject of those background actor scans, which would allow studios to create a digital likeness of an actor’s face and use it however and wherever they see fit, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP are still at odds.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, SAG-AFTRA is trying to get compensation for re-using scans and for studios to pay for the scans. Currently, the language allows studios and streamers the ability to use scans of dead performers without consent. One source told The Hollywood Reporter that it “behooves them to have you dead in that they need consent when you’re alive but not when you’re dead.” These studios really saw the response to the ending of The Flash and decided that that should be the future of entertainment.

It’s honestly kind of incredible that, following the public thrashing the studios took all summer long, the studios would continue with these grim theatrics. What’s so complicated? If a studio wishes to use an actor’s face, the studio should inform the actor and pay them. Unless, of course, we want the background of every movie to look as horrific and lazy as Prom Pact. The future is looking so bright, we gotta wear shades.