Film and TV actors have been on strike for months now, but what’s at stake for child actors and why should we care?

Why Are Actors Striking?

There are a lot of reasons, from fair compensation to AI to safety on set. But it’s easy to forget that many children are actors too, and everything the unions win or lose will greatly affect a minor’s experience on set.

That’s the situation that Actors/Filmmakers Paula Rhodes and Charlie Bodin find themselves in, along with their two children who also love to act onscreen (although their parents take steps to ensure they are kids first). Bodin volunteers as one of the negotiatiors for the SAG/AFTRA union, specifically advocating for child performers alongside Sean Astin, which means he is deep inside the negotiationsalks . Talks resumed again last week but have since stalled once more, with the studios releasing misinformation to turn the press an public against the union’s members.

Why do Child Actors Need Protection?

Professional child actors have a harried history of being treated fairly or unfairly, and their accompanying guardian holds a lot of responsibility for their safety. Even though this is separate from Family Vloggers on YouTube, an area that has few to no regulations for minors, it’s important to understand the environment in which our favorite media is created. The fight to consent to and be properly compensated for a minor actor to be scanned using AI is just one hot button issue at play; Safeguarding a child’s time and experience on set are also under negotiation, and starts even before they get the role.

Try Adding an Audition on Top of Homework

Bodin and Rhodes estimated that any audition takes 3-5 hours between prep, rehearsal, and then filming before editing it into the required format for casting directors. That is up to five hours of unpaid work just to possibly land an acting job.

Adult actors might find it difficult, but these expectations are especially hard for families, considering the last minute nature of auditions in the entertainment industry. Rhodes explained in a Zoom interview how it affects their daily lives, even as an adult: “You might get the email from your agent that says congratulations! You have an audition. It’s due tomorrow at 9am and you check your clock and it’s 7pm. And it is a seven page audition and you’re trying to put your children to sleep freaking out about how you’re gonna memorize this and you already washed all your makeup off. Okay. Got to get that ready. Got to set up the lights got to get the mic gotta then beg my spouse or partner to help or you have to pay somebody to be your reader.”

Child actors will often be given only 48 hours from the time they’re told they have an audition until they’re expected to learn the lines, film their parts, and submit in a professional manner. “We are fighting for an extra 24 hours (total 72) for self tape auditions to minors (adjusting for schooling),” Bodin said. “Past practice has been to have kids record their audition at home BEFORE school to satisfy casting’s deadline, or sometimes at night when they might otherwise be in bed.”

Most actors also have full time or side jobs to make ends meet, and need to accomplish all of this during what is normally their resting hours. Children’s audition tapes must not only work around their parents’ available time, but also their school hours. Increasing the turnaround time for a child to submit their audition tape will help to alleviate the pressure on families and unnecessary stress on a child’s life.

Securing a Safe Set and Fair Pay Regardless of Age

• Section 50 (which is our basic agreement protection for minors) protections for children are ONLY required for regular TV and film, but not for New Media. We are striking to get those protections included in all new media that is not HBSVOD [High-budget subscription video on demand]. That includes all AVOD [advertising video on demand], which is where almost all children’s programming is.
• We urge Production to finally pay pension on children 14 or younger in the West coast background. Past practice (for the last 31 years has been to pay pension for NY only, but not the West coast zones)
• We are fighting for an extra 24 hours (total 72) for selftape auditions to minors (adjusting for schooling). Past practice has been to have kids record their audition at home BEFORE school to satisfy casting’s deadline, or sometimes at night when they might otherwise be in bed.”

AI is the Entertainment Industry’s Fountain of Youth

It’s hard to imagine all the ramifications that AI is ushering into our world, but creatives understand it quite well. Imagine that years from now, you’re watching a movie and see someone who looks exactly like your neighbor’s kid who was a child actor twenty years ago– and then you realize it is them. That’s a possibility under the current SAG/AFTRA contracts for minors.

Meeta Vengapally explains in her article “What Parents of Young Actors Need to Know About the SAG/AFTRA Strike” that “It sounds pretty sci-fi, but if your child performs background work in a film and they show up in another film years later (without having shown up for the job and without being paid), then you would be pretty furious—and they’d be heartbroken. Although these points seem clear, major studios aren’t willing to budge.”

It isn’t hypothetical, either. Studios often use the tactic that it’s all still “the wild west,” and actors should be patient until they figure these things out, while at the same time we see examples all around us that show the power studios now yield without the protections that unions are fighting for:

• Tom Hanks took to Instagram to tell the world that he is not promoting a dental product, but an AI version of him is.
• India premiered their first all-AI reporter who will “never complain about long hours,” according to CNN.
• Actor Eric Passoja’s face was scanned and used in a video game that he was not aware of nor paid for. He didn’t know until his friend called to say, “I just shot you.”
• Chris R. Williams, Founder and CEO of Pocket.Watch, boasted at VidCon Baltimore how Ryan Kaji’s (Ryan’s World) animation show can be produced eternally, since they use AI to replicate his pre-puberty voice. (This is assumed to be with Kaji’s family’s consent, but many studios don’t need it.)

Why All Families Should Support the Actors’ Strike

So whether it’s protecting a child’s time around their school days, background checks for the on-set guardian assigned to them, reasonable consent and compensation for the programming where studios now prosper, or offering children the same rights to their own images and voice that adults are now fighting for, it’s important the families in the entertainment industry know that we, their audiences, support their rights.

What Can You Do?

Now that the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) has secured a contract their union is happy with, all eyes are on the actor unions SAG/AFTRA. (You can also want to stay tuned here for a pending strike of video game actors.) There are two main ways that anyone who doesn’t work in Hollywood can support their efforts:

• Be a vocal advocate if you hear someone disparaging the strike. There’s a common refrain that these “millionaire actors” just want more money, but it’s so much more complicated than that. Most actors are lucky if they are considered middle class. For instance, an actor must reach a threshold of $27,000 in a year before they qualify for health care benefits. Only 86% of SAG/AFTRA’s union members ever reach that number.
• Support the striking actors and amilies who are out of work. The Entertainment Community Fund is where you can donate any amount to help keep people fed as they strive for a more sustainable career.

The unions returned to the negotiating table last week, but left without an agreement. The union and its members continue their coordinated picketing in front of studios while negotiatiors work day and night so their members can enjoy fair and safe working conditions.

Rhodes updated OutThink Media this week on how the prolonged talks are affecting her family and profession, with the strike now hitting the 90-day mark:

It’s hard. On everyone. The fact that we’re now finally negotiating directly with CEOs is encouraging and new (never done in the union’s history). There are no days off. When not across the table, negotiating committee members are meeting and working on things daily with no breaks for weekends or holidays. This is important. It’s GOT to be done thoroughly and well as people’s livelihoods from here on out are at stake. We are on the right side of history and are going to win a fair contract (and are encouraged to see other industries doing the same), no matter how long it takes. With a 97.9% authorization vote the membership agrees.
We’re hanging in. Together.”

Paula Rhodes

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Read more: Illinois Tells Family Vloggers to Pay Their Kids: YouTube News

Photo/Image Credit: Canva, Jackson Davis, Shutterstock, Striking SAG/AFTRA Actor Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper

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Sources:

• CNN, “AI news anchors and the future of journalism,” uploaded to CNN’s YouTube channel, 27 July 2023, https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/07/27/exp-ai-news-anchor-amanpour-intw-072701pseg2-cnni-world.cnn .
• Hanks, Tom, uploaded to Instagram, 1 October 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx2MsH9rt7q/
• SAG/AFTRA Instagram account, 12 October 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CySkt0DuSvH/?img_index=1.
• Vengapally, Mega,“What Parents of Young Actors Need to KNow About the SAG/AFTRA Strike”, All Business, 29 August 2023, https://www.allbusiness.com/sag-aftra-strike-young-actors

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