SAG-AFTRA Advises Actors Against Character Costumes Amid Strike

Barbie, Ken and Wednesday Addams costumes are out. Ghosts and zombies are in.

Halloween this yr is difficult for actors on strike, below new union guidelines that inform them methods to keep away from crossing the digital picket line: Don’t costume as characters from main studio productions or submit images of the costumes on-line.

“Let’s use our collective energy to ship a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we are going to not promote their content material with no truthful contract,” the union, SAG-AFTRA, stated within the pointers on Thursday.

The union urged its members to “have a good time Halloween this yr whereas additionally staying in solidarity.”

SAG-AFTRA, representing greater than 150,000 tv and film actors, has been on strike since July whereas it negotiates a contract with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers, which represents main movie and streaming companies together with Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros.

Usually, the union encourages striking members to share images of their union engagement and the picket line as a way to amplify their calls for, which embrace elevated residual funds from streaming providers, a wage enhance and protections concerning using synthetic intelligence. However SAG-AFTRA stated its Halloween pointers had been meant “to ensure our members don’t inadvertently break strike guidelines.”

The rules urge members to decide on generic costumes — of zombies, spiders or ghosts, say — or to base their costumes on characters from animated tv exhibits.

In its protection of the brand new pointers on Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter highlighted some of the rules’ technicalities. For instance, a fancy dress based mostly on Barbie, which is owned by Mattel, may counsel that the wearer was selling the summer time’s greatest film from a serious studio.

“Presumably, actors may costume up like struck characters in the event that they weren’t seen publicly of their costumes, nevertheless it’s in all probability finest to not threat it — in any case, nothing is scarier than getting known as out for scabbing,” the publication wrote, utilizing the slang time period for somebody who disregards a strike.

Social media images of costumes impressed by content material coated by the strike might be thought of publicity work, in response to the union. It was not clear how actors would deal with dressing up as Barbie or J. Robert Oppenheimer at occasions that may not be publicized or whether or not actors would affect the costume selections of their members of the family.

“I stay up for screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 yr outdated all night time. She’s not within the union however she must study,” the actor Ryan Reynolds stated in a joking post on X, the platform previously often called Twitter.

John Rocha, a union actor and the co-host of “The Hot Mic,” a movie overview podcast, known as the choice “silly” and stated he hoped that SAG-AFTRA would reverse course.

“Partying at Halloween dressed because the characters their fellow SAG actors dropped at life (whereas they blow off some steam) ought to be ENCOURAGED,” he said on X.

Negotiations between the leisure studios and the union collapsed final week, with either side saying they remained far aside on essentially the most vital points.