Inside Hollywood’s historic civil war
ALL THE ESSENTIAL INTEL, FROM HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND
AS ACTORS JOIN WRITERS ON THE PICKET LINE, EMPIRE HEADS TO THE FRONT TO FIND OUT HOW IT’S COME TO THIS
EDITED BY BETH WEBB
SEPTEMBER 2023
Susan Sarandon with fellow strikers on the picket line in New York;
Getty Images
WORDS IAN FREER ADDITIONAL REPORTING KEVIN EG PERRY
BATTLE LINES COME in many forms. The one Empire currently finds itself on is perhaps best described as a carnival. It’s Monday afternoon outside Paramount Pictures on day four (17th July) of an industrial action that has brought the American film industry to its knees. The sun is blazing down and the energy is sky-high; the beat of a djembe drum is almost drowned out by the cacophonous chorus of car horns, honking their solidarity with the hundreds of striking actors carrying placards back and forth on the picket line in front of the studio’s iconic gates.
“I think one of the critical aspects of this particular fight, and why I feel it’s so strong, is because we all just watched the whole planet shut down for Covid,” Rosario Dawson tells Empire, holding a “SAG-AFTRA ON STRIKE!” sign and barely audible over the din. “We watched everything stop on a dime and pivot. So, the idea that we can’t change how things are because that’s the way it’s always been and always will be, we all collectively know that’s BS.”