Actors Ratify Deal With Hollywood Studios, With Reservations

Actors have voted to approve a new three-year contract with studios although some union members remained dissatisfied with the deal’s artificial intelligence protections. The ratification formally ended six months of labor unrest in the entertainment industry.

SAG-AFTRA, as the actors’ union is known, said on Tuesday that more than 50,000 members had submitted ballots during the three-week voting period. The contract was ratified with 78 percent of the vote, easily clearing the required threshold of a simple majority.

To compare, however, screenwriters ratified their new contract with studios in October with 99 percent of the vote. And the writers in one way received less: Desperate to resolve the second of two strikes — writers walked out in May and actors in July — studios agreed last month to give actors a 7 percent first-year raise, while writers received 5 percent.

SAG-AFTRA valued its deal at more than $1 billion over three years, noting that it also included artificial intelligence protections, better health care funding, improved hair and makeup services on sets, concessions from studios on self-taped auditions, and a requirement for intimacy coordinators for sex scenes, among other gains.

But some SAG-AFTRA members have questioned the strength of the artificial intelligence protections.

The new contract guarantees that studios will not use A.I. tools to create digital replicas of performers without payment or approval, rights that actors previously did not have and that SAG-AFTRA leaders have described as a hard-fought starting point. The new contract requires studios to meet at least twice a year until then to discuss the fast-evolving technology.

The contract, however, does not bar studios from populating screens with “synthetic fakes,” or the use of artificial intelligence to create an entirely fabricated character by melding together recognizable features from real actors. “Ratification of this contract will result in greater job reductions, especially for background and stunt performers,” Matthew Modine, a SAG-AFTRA board member, said in a statement last month.