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Hundreds of thousands of creative workers in the film and television industry are currently flexing their labor power. For the first time in , the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (which with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 2012 to become SAG-AFTRA) are striking simultaneously. Filming has midproduction and are on hold. Negotiations are reportedly poised to resume on August 4.

At the heart of the unions鈥� conflict with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents all the major entertainment media corporations, are the of royalty payments鈥攌nown as residuals鈥攁nd the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The former is an urgent matter of financial sustainability for artists between projects. The latter is an existential matter involving the dystopian prospect of robot-generated scripts in place of writers and digital replicas in place of actors. 

I outside Disney鈥檚 headquarters on July 26, to hear directly from those striking what they believe they鈥檙e fighting for. 鈥淲e鈥檙e here to get fair pay, and respect for what we do,鈥� says TV star , holding a picket sign as she marches alongside other actors and writers. 鈥淚 never thought I鈥檇 have to say this, but I鈥檓 an actual human being.鈥�

Many writers and actors feel they鈥檝e been pushed too far and are fighting for the survival of their careers and craft, and have taken to social media to rant against their corporate overlords鈥攁nd I am here for this display of narrative power. The question is, how far will they go?

Well-known actor John Cusack posted a lengthy on July 14, the first day of the SAG-AFTRA strike, saying there was 鈥渙ne set of rules for elites鈥攁nd another for workers,鈥� which he said effectively means 鈥渟ocialism for the .oooo1 %鈥� and 鈥渟avage predatory capitalism for everyone else.鈥� As of this writing, Cusack鈥檚 tweet has been viewed by more than 4.6 million people. 

Others are skewering Disney CEO Bob Iger, who that the union members are making demands that are 鈥渏ust not realistic鈥� and that 鈥渢hey are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.鈥� Curb Your Enthusiasm鈥檚 Saverio Guerra a photo of Iger sunbathing with the caption, 鈥淥h look, it鈥檚 Bob Iger being unrealistic and disruptive on his yacht!鈥�

Indeed, many industry creatives are seeing their plight through the lens of a predatory capitalist system. According to actor , who picketed outside Disney, 鈥淭he 1% is just getting fatter and fatter while the rest of us do not thrive.鈥�

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 no accident that all of this is coming when it鈥檚 the dawn of television for people of color, for underrepresented communities,鈥� says , an actor picketing Disney鈥檚 headquarters. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tale as old as time: Let鈥檚 underpay these Black and Brown people, these LGBTQ [people].鈥� It鈥檚 a strong accusation and constitutes just one part of the collective wrath aimed at the industry鈥檚 greed, which is exerting downward pressure on worker compensation at the same time that Hollywood鈥檚 doors are finally being pushed open to greater racial diversity. 

People of color like de Lara are disproportionately more familiar with capitalism鈥檚 cruelty than whites. Black, Indigenous, and Latino workers, on average, than white workers鈥攚hether in Hollywood or beyond. Now, the fields of filmmaking and television are collectively experiencing the brutality of the corporate bottom line. While the highest-profile actors and writers make bank, the . 

Will this nascent intimacy with corporate greed influence Hollywood鈥檚 future storylines?

As I pointed out recently in an op-ed about the hit television show Succession, the industry has had a fraught relationship with on-screen wealth. And although there are increasingly more projects that are critical of capitalism, many still tend to play it safe. Writing in , culture writer Patrick Sproull critiqued many of the 鈥渆at the rich鈥� tropes that have started to emerge on-screen, calling them 鈥減erformative and shallow in their criticisms.鈥� 

Boots Riley鈥檚 new series for Amazon, , is an excellent illustration of how Hollywood鈥檚 creators can push the envelope in critiquing the crushing economic system under which we all live. Lucy Mangan鈥檚 review of the series in calls it 鈥渘ot just a sweet coming-of-age story for the isolated boy-man [Cootie, played by Jharrel Jerome], but interrogations of race relations, capitalism, and the cracks rapidly opening into abysses between the haves and have-nots.鈥�

Riley, who doesn鈥檛 shy away from being intentional in his on-screen projects鈥攈is first foray into Hollywood was the exceptional anti-capitalist satire 鈥� to the Hollywood Reporter, 鈥淭he contradictions of capitalism鈥攈ow it works鈥攁re going to echo through almost everything we do.鈥�

Hollywood鈥檚 rank and file are striking at the height of 2023鈥檚 , a phenomenon that includes in Southern California. Writers and actors find themselves literally with unions like UNITE HERE Local 11, experiencing firsthand the power of labor solidarity across industries and gathering fodder (we can only hope) for future plotlines focused on the hand-to-mouth struggles of ordinary Americans. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e become less and less of a union country over the last 40 to 50 years, and that has weakened our rights as individuals and as workers so significantly,鈥� says , who has both written scripts and acted in various television shows. 鈥淚t鈥檚, to me, working exactly the way the businesses want it to work.鈥�

Given this insight, would Manugian incorporate this critique of American capitalism into future scripts? 鈥淚 think we should do everything we possibly can for that,鈥� he replies. 鈥淭he trick is to do it in a way that鈥檚 still, hopefully, super entertaining.鈥� Hollywood鈥檚 greatest power is its ability to normalize ideas, infusing our culture with tropes that we internalize over time. It has done so for ill, as in the case of , and for good, as with . As rank-and-file creative workers dig their heels in for a protracted fight for their survival, it would benefit all workers if the rage they are feeling makes a direct leap from their pithy Twitter posts into the pages of their screenplays.