Behind the Red Carpet: 160,000 Workers Fighting to Get By

Why the SAG-AFTRA fight is your fight, too

They tell you that everyone you see in movies and on television are all big stars with personal chefs, beach houses in Malibu and seven-figure contracts. That’s it’s just glitz and glamour. Nothing but Red Carpets and Couture. Everyone has Bradley Cooper Money and George Clooney Looks.

NASA is more than just a few rockets that made it to outer space.

From the vintage sitcom, to the box office smash and through to the cult classic. There is an entire ecosystem of professionals underneath all those award shows. It’s not just the faces you see on the screen, it’s background actors. It’s announcers. Broadcast journalists. Dancers, DJs. News writers. News editors. Program hosts. Puppeteers. Recording artists. Singers. Stunt performers. Voiceover artists. One hundred and sixty thousand hard working people who all belong to one union: SAG-AFTRA.

Eighty-seven percent of those hard working people make $26,500 per year. That means if SAG-AFTRA members had regular 40-hour work weeks with 2 weeks PTO (SPOILER: They don’t), 139,200 union members are making less than $13 an hour. 139,200 people that make the shows and movies that you absolutely crash out over and binge in a weekend are getting squeezed out of the work they’ve built their entire lives around and there’s only one reason:

Greed.

Over the years, studios have gutted residuals, union members have had their healthcare coverage slashed, and performers have been pushed into gig-to-gig survival. Streaming killed the steady paycheck and AI is coming for people’s faces, voices, and 28% of the workforce.

When SAG-AFTRA fights for fair wages, protections, and respect, they’re not just fighting for “Hollywood.” They’re fighting for the same thing every union fights for: a contract that says workers are worth more than the corporate bottom line.

Jim and I know this fight personally. Not only were our parents union workers (my mom took me with her to the picket lines when her local went on strike in the 80s), I belonged to IBEW and Jim is a vested Teamster. As Eleven Films, we wrote and produced several short ads with Abbott Elementary star Lisa Ann Walter (a national board member who is also running for L.A. local Vice President) in support of SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations and elections from the pandemic in 2020 through 2023.

2020, #SOSHealthPlan

2021, #VoteMembershipFirst

These projects meant so much to me as a creator. As a writer. The words I wrote with Lisa were said by Martin Sheen. Clancy Brown. Whoopi Goldberg. Morgan Freeman. Mark Hamill. Performers that kept me alive as a child. Their stories kept me from losing my shit. Even if it was just for 2 hours at the theatre in 1987, all these people taught me that there was something out there beyond my tiny existence.

There was something magical about everyone coming together during a pandemic and creating messaging to strengthen a union. I was honored they would think of Eleven Films. Hell yes we were going to help them build on each other. To stand up for one another. Under all that fame and all those big names, it was just a bunch of unionists who decided:

The jig is up.

2023, #SAGAFTRAStrong

This week Lisa joined us on The Dangerous Ones alongside L.A. Local Presidential Candidate Joely Fisher and current L.A. Local Second Vice President and candidate David Jolliffe to talk about the union’s upcoming 2025 elections. If you’re wondering why this election matters, consider this: Thanks to Joely’s tenacity and leadership as National Secretary-Treasurer, SAG-AFTRA finally bought their own building after 37 years of renting in Los Angeles. That is a whopping $100 million in rent since the 1990s. They were the only major Hollywood union that didn't own its own headquarters and are finally turning a profit. They’re adding self-taping rooms for members and also planning a theatre. This is what happens when union leadership works for the members.

At the top of the ticket this year is Sean Astin. Sean isn’t just the body of his work, he’s a beloved GenX institution. He’s the son of the legendary Patty Duke, also a former SAG president who fought for working actors long before anyone knew what streaming even was. Sean is the kind of candidate who knows that the job isn’t about celebrity. It’s about stewardship. It’s about protecting members today and securing the future for those who will come after him. Sean knows this union and he knows this business. Like we all know every word to Goonies.

If you think this isn’t your fight, think about what happens when money is tight and you can’t go to the movies. Or stream your favorite service. Or take the kids to a matinee on Tightwad Tuesday. What happens when the people who make that content are gone? When our storytellers are replaced with AI. When the creators themselves are priced out of their own craft. What happens when the big studios only produce what their shareholders want to see? What the sharks at the top will do when they not only control the funds, they control the pipeline of creativity. (SPOILER: We’ve been watching it for decades now)

When you’re a performer, it’s about the work. It’s in your heart. It’s in your blood. You don’t hustle your ass off because you hate it. You hustle your ass off and fight for representation because you live for this shit. Studio heads could never do what our favorite union members do every day. It’s only about the bottom line when you have a big office and a private bathroom. Right, Bob?

Think about what happens when art and cinema become privileges only the wealthy can afford.

Movies, TV, and theater aren’t just made by the people in them. They’re made for by the people watching them. They pour their lives into making good movies. Good streaming content. Good shows. Behind every performance you love is a crew of working-class people who deserve the same protections, dignity, and respect that every American worker should have. If you’re a SAG-AFTRA member, your vote matters. If you’re not, this fight still matters to you. When any union wins fair contracts, whether it’s auto workers, teachers, or actors, it strengthens the labor movement for everyone.

This isn’t about Hollywood vs. “regular jobs.” This is a regular job. And it’s worth fighting for.

Watch the latest episode of The Dangerous Ones with special guests Joely Fisher, Lisa Ann Walter, and David Jolliffe here: