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Actors on strike – why all workers should take a leaf from Hollywood’s book
If SAG-AFTRA is able to secure actors’ rights to control how their work is used by AI, it will have global repercussions for all who work in creative industries and beyond, writes TIM DAWSON
Tim Brehmer (left) and a fellow picketer dress as characters from The Mandalorian outside Disney studios on Thursday, July 20, 2023, in Burbank, California

WHAT campaigner could fail to envy the cast of A-listers that the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has recruited to its cause? 

Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon and George Clooney have been picketing film studios or showing support for the US screenwriters’ and actors’ union. 

Writers such as Lucy Prebble are able to interrupt prime-time interviews about their work (in her case the final episode of Succession) to voice their support for the strike.

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