‘We need to restructure it from the top’: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ star Sean Gunn on the picket line

Among the many actors on the picket line for the SAG-AFTRA strike is Sean Gunn, who stars as Kraglin in his brother James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Gunn marched with fellow actors outside Netflix offices on Monday and spoke to the press about the issues that have led to this pivotal moment in Hollywood history.

Gunn spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, discussing how actors have been denied streaming revenue for too long:

Gunn stated:

“Sharing in streaming revenue… needs to be re-thought-of. As Fran Drescher [president of SAG-AFTRA] said yesterday, the whole business model… has fallen apart, really. And so, we need to restructure it from the top.”

Other actors interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter spoke openly about their concerns with producers replicating their likenesses with AI. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) offered actors what the group described as a “groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses.” However, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, said the proposal is just a means to pay actors for one day of work and then control their likeness forever.

Health care and pension benefits are also topics of interest to the striking actors, with some saying that they need to be able to take care of their families even if they aren’t the star of a project.

SAG-AFTRA was joined on the picket lines by the WGA, as the writers guild still has not reached their own agreement with AMPTP since walking off the job in early May.