Wanda Sykes, Kal Penn, many more speak at writers' strike protest

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Cynthia Nixon; Kal Penn; Ilana Glazer; Wanda Sykes

Three weeks into the writers’ strike, the Writers Guild of America took over New York City’s legendary Rockefeller Plaza to make one thing crystal and rightfully clear to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP): They’re not backing down.

The WGA East organized a vibrant rally on May 23 below the iconic 30 Rock building, home to Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and the NBC and Comcast offices. It’s also the structure that inspired NBC’s long-running, beloved sitcom,
30 Rock (a show that, a decade ago, was impacted by the previous strike). The adrenaline-filled energy from solidarity just can’t be beaten, and thankfully, the WGA wasn’t alone. Members of the SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, and other labor unions showed up in numbers to support the writers demanding fair compensation for their work. What else did corporations promoting AI over real writing talent expect?

The 30 Rock rally witnessed impressive speakers, from And Just Like That...’s Cynthia Nixon to Broad City’s Ilana Glazer, from playwright Tony Kushner to Good Omens’ Neil Gaiman. The A.V. Club did some boots-on-the-ground reporting to bring you rousing, insightful quotes from everyone who took the stage supporting the WGA, including exclusive comments from Girls5eva and SNL’s Paula Pell and rally emcee Josh Gondelman, former writer at Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.

[The following speeches have been condensed.]

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Paula Pell: “We’re being devalued”

Image for article titled Cynthia Nixon, Wanda Sykes, and many more take to 30 Rock and speak amid writers' strike — Photo: Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images (Getty Images)

“Nothing exists without writing. I don’t care if a computer spits out something. It’s not inspired, like you get from the writers. We must value it because we’re being devalued, making less money, and young writers can’t learn. This is the time for them to learn from the writers’ room. I feel strongly about that.

I’ve been so touched by looking up at this building where I learned to write [on SNL] and made my living for many years, learning how to write a comedy. I want every writer who is young, of my age, and in between to be able to make a living in this incredible craft. We’re all born with these crazy brains, and I don’t want machines taking over that because some people care only about quantity and not quality.”

Pell confirmed to The A.V. Club that Girls5eva season three, which moves from Peacock to Netflix, has finished filming. “It’s a relief, but we would’ve happily stopped if we needed to. But we were blessed in our timing and could get it out.”

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Josh Gondelman, WGA rally emcee: “We’re fighting for what’s fair”

“30 Rock is a legendary place where TV gets made. There’s literally a TV show named after it. It’s one of the few addresses everyone knows and associates with NBC and TV production, so getting everyone here gives the rally a special energy...

We’re here because we’re fighting for what’s right and what’s fair, it’s part of the fabric of the same fight of workers vs. corporatism. We’re fighting for the future of writing as a sustainable profession. I think that’s been reported responsibly, but I don’t know if the message has hit home with people who have no connection to this. The strike is about the people who want to keep writing and people who should be brought in but don’t have a strong foothold in the industry yet. We’re trying to keep traditionally marginalized groups from being squeezed out because the studios are trying to earn writing into a gig economy job,” Gondelman told The A.V. Club.

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Cynthia Nixon: “Don’t let TV writing become a freelance position”

Cynthia Nixon at Writers' Strike Rally — Photo: MEGA/GC Images (Getty Images)

“We’re demanding for the AMPTP to take less than 2% of their massive profits and distribute them among the people who are creating the content, to begin with. Make no mistake, this refusal to come to the bargaining table is a bid to turn TV and film writing into a freelance position.”

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5 / 15

Busy Philipps gets some jokes in at David Zaslov

Busy Phillips at Writers' Strike rally — Photo: MEGA/GC Images (Getty Images)

“We’ve got to figure out streaming residuals. What I think is getting lost is we’re not asking for more money; we’re asking for money we are owed. We are owed money via residuals. The companies have designed a way via streaming not to pay us. ... We’re asking for a deal from the studios that will allow us to share the successes of the art we create that makes writing a sustainable career. I used the word art instead of content, and normally, any actor that would use the word art would make me roll my eyes, but these companies are calling what we do content in order to devalue it because they think it can be created by AI. And we need to make sure we keep treating art as both a reflection of our human soul and also as the result of real labor that deserves fair compensation.”

Philipps closed out her speech with a slew of jokes on David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the studio heads responsible for holding up a fair contract. She thanked the WGA writers who came up with these zingers, including writers from Late Night, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, her Girls5eva co-star Pell, Ike Barinholtz, and Simran Baidwan. It would be criminal not to publish some of these:

“In the words of David Zaslav, as an actor, I’m so glad to be here with all you difficult people I have to get along with.”

“Zaslav sucks so bad, he made a bunch of shouting 20-somethings from Boston sound sensible.”

“Zaslav, the genius who looked at HBO Max and decided, people really just want the modifier.”

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6 / 15

Tony Kushner: “What the living fuck is the matter with you, AMPTP?”

Tony Kushner at Writers' Strike rally — Photo: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Getty Images)

“It makes sense that you’ve forgotten the meaning of words. That’s what happens when you devalue writers [is] you lose language. We are writers, we know what words mean. We know the difference between truth and malevolent, cynical self-serving horse shit. ... Take a look at yourselves in the mirror and AMPTP, by which I mean, take a look at your grotesquely bloated bank accounts and stock portfolios and ask yourself what the WGA along with all of sane civilization is asking you: What the living fuck is the matter with you, AMPTP? How much money do you really need?”

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7 / 15

Wanda Sykes highlights how things have changed since 2007

Wanda Sykes at Writers' Strike Rally — Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

“We shouldn’t have to be out here doing this, but I am so proud to see so many faces. And these faces, it’s a lot different than what it was back in 2007 because of how rooms have changed. I see so many women, young women. I see so many brown faces, I see my Asian brothers and sisters out here. It’s beautiful. ... It really is about the survival of our industry right now, the survival of our craft, if we don’t get this deal that we need, right? I just look around and I can see all these different faces, and we get to tell our stories, we get to hear your stories, right? It’s not just from that straight white guy perspective anymore.”

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8 / 15

Ilana Glazer: “This is about fighting the dehumanizing of writers”

Ilana Glazer at Writers' Strike Rally — Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

“Writing is the recording of the human spirit. We reflect the human experience. And right when stories written by women, Black writers, trans writers, and queer writers are starting to emerge, they want to hire robots to mine stories from the past 100 years. They did not expect the Writers Guild to have the visibility that we are claiming. They did not expect the labor movement to be at a point where the majority of people could see the connection and intersection. This strike is about fighting against the dehumanizing of writers.”

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9 / 15

Kal Penn calls out diversity marketing

Kal Penn, Busy Phillips, and Ilana Glazer at the writers' strike — Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

“As writers, it feels strange to come together like this and realize that we despise someone more than we despised ourselves already. ... CEOs cannot write scripts. Shareholders cannot write scripts. Studio executives cannot write scripts as evidenced by the notes they give us on our scripts...

Some companies like Disney have done a lot on diversity and inclusion and we want to support them in the free speech challenges they face in places like Florida. But when big media companies are unwilling to negotiate a fair contract, when they refuse to pay their writers fairly, and when they reject reasonable professional protections, their actions have shown the world that perhaps they don’t actually value equity, their marketing executives just like to tweet about it. ... The contract that we’re demanding [addresses] serious and disproportionate implications for Black writers, Indigenous writers, and writers of color. Many rooms tend to lock out new talent, especially writers from our communities who are trying to break into the writers’ room. That’s why the WGA has offered proposals to ensure that writers are not stuck at the same staffing level. So make no mistake. This is not about their performative tweets or what they’re posting during a particular month of the year. This is a once-in-a-lifetime decision point for our industry when it comes to addressing systemic barriers to entry and advancements.”

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10 / 15

Neil Gaiman responds to other writers’ frustrations

Neil Gaiman at the national book awards — Photo: Dia Dipasupil / Staff (Getty Images)

“Shortly before the strike happened, a friend of mine who had been in the writers’ room for 3-4 shows but who had never been on a set sent me a message. She said, “I’m angry with the WGA. Their strike decision has crashed things for young, mid-career writers, those without connections or blind luck are shafted.” I wrote back: “Everything the WGA is asking is for young, mid-career writers. We want to limit mini rooms to get writers on shows [for] longer and [to] on-set experience so you can be the next generation of showrunners and not be shuffled off to one side after a few weeks. Right now, corporate TV profits are gargantuan and writers’ pay opportunities are dropping. This negotiation isn’t about getting a few more points on residuals, it’s about opening opportunities to younger, more vulnerable writers.”

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11 / 15

Former Sen. Al Franken recalls his original SNL salary

Al Franken and Cynthia Nixon at Writers' Strike Rally — Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

“In 1975, Tom Davis and I got a job at a show that was somewhere around here. Oh there [pointing up to 30 Rock] at SNL. We were hired, the two of us, as one apprentice. We were paid $300 a week. Not each. We split it. The next time we went on strike, we made sure that didn’t happen. Some of the stuff I wrote, I wrote 47 years ago. But how many people get residual checks for a penny? You get those from years when we had bad contracts. This is part of what it’s all about, these negotiations are about making sure we can earn a living wage.”

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Sal Gentile, Late Night With Seth Meyers writer, mocks Max

“The moment that the nation has been waiting for with David Zaslav. Today is the day HBO Max becomes Max. Can you feel the electricity in the air? They said America couldn’t do it, but we finally did it. We came up with a name dumber than Quibi. Who is signing up for it now that it’s just Max? That tells me something. That tells me the struggle over naming it tells me that people don’t care about the name. They care about the shows on the service that people aren’t looking for HBO Max or a Max. They’re not looking for the streaming service that’s run by David Zaslav. They’re looking for the shows that writers and artists create...

As you’ve no doubt noticed, late-night shows are the first shows to throw off the air during the strike. And so if you desperately want your favorite late-night shows’ take on something in the news that we’ve missed, something like George Santos getting indicted or Rudy Giuliani ordering Viagra by the pallet or whatever, tell the AMPTP to give us a fair contract.”

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Joe Opio, comedian and The Daily Show writer, on shutting down Evil

Writers and crew of ‘The Daily Show’ attend the 69th Annual Writers Guild Awards New York ceremony at Edison Ballroom on February 19, 2017 in New York City — Photo: Photo by Noam Galai/WireImage (Getty Images)

“The reason I’m here is because I was one of four writers who shut down the production of Evil during the first week of the strike. That’s right. Four of us, only four of us, shut down Evil because we were able to picket for eight hours straight. And because it was just four of us, the only reason we succeeded is because the teamsters and the IATSE crew members refused to cross our picket line the whole night. So I learned a very valuable lesson that night. The other unions are willing and ready to stand in solidarity with us. All we have to do is turn up and form a picket line...

Now, before I go, before I go, I just wanted this opportunity to remind everyone here that it’s not just writers who are hurting in the strike. It’s not just writers right now. There are so many innocent victims in the industry who are also being adversely affected by the greed of the producers. ... We understand their frustration. We also understand their deep anger towards us, but also tell them that this is the fastest way that we can get everyone back to work because the only language that producers understand is money. And so we have to communicate to them by shutting down as many productions as we can.”

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Warren Leight, former WGAE President and former Law & Order: SVU showrunner, envisions a happy ending

Warren Leight speaks at Writers' Strike rally — Photo: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images (Getty Images)

“The strike is different because the membership is unified and mobilized. We’re all in this together. The strike is different because of the tremendous support we’re getting from other guilds. Here today, the studios have lost the narrative. Writers are writing the strike step by step every day. It could be long, it will be filled with jeopardy, crushed, hope, betrayal, stupid red herrings—that’s what we do on Law & Order. But in the end, if we stick together with our fellow unions, I think this is true, there will be probably just in the nick of time, right after the catharsis, there will be a happy ending for the good guys.”

Cynthia Nixon, Wanda Sykes, and many more take to 30 Rock and speak amid writers' strike

In a move Jack Donaghy would've loathed, the WGA wisely held a significant rally at 30 Rock during the ongoing writers' strike

Paula Pell: “We’re being devalued”

Paula Pell: “We’re being devalued”

Josh Gondelman, WGA rally emcee: “We’re fighting for what’s fair”

Josh Gondelman, WGA rally emcee: “We’re fighting for what’s fair”

Cynthia Nixon: “Don’t let TV writing become a freelance position”

Cynthia Nixon: “Don’t let TV writing become a freelance position”

Busy Philipps gets some jokes in at David Zaslov

Busy Philipps gets some jokes in at David Zaslov

Tony Kushner: “What the living fuck is the matter with you, AMPTP?”

Tony Kushner: “What the living fuck is the matter with you, AMPTP?”

Wanda Sykes highlights how things have changed since 2007

Wanda Sykes highlights how things have changed since 2007

Ilana Glazer: “This is about fighting the dehumanizing of writers”

Ilana Glazer: “This is about fighting the dehumanizing of writers”

Kal Penn calls out diversity marketing

Kal Penn calls out diversity marketing

Neil Gaiman responds to other writers’ frustrations

Neil Gaiman responds to other writers’ frustrations

Former Sen. Al Franken recalls his original SNL salary

Former Sen. Al Franken recalls his original SNL salary

Sal Gentile, Late Night With Seth Meyers writer, mocks Max

Sal Gentile, Late Night With Seth Meyers writer, mocks Max

Joe Opio, comedian and The Daily Show writer, on shutting down Evil

Joe Opio, comedian and The Daily Show writer, on shutting down Evil

Warren Leight, former WGAE President and former Law & Order: SVU showrunner, envisions a happy ending

Warren Leight, former WGAE President and former Law & Order: SVU showrunner, envisions a happy ending