Dreyfuss Sticks Up For Actors
For many actors in the U.S., their current role has been carrying a picket sign. A strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has been going on for four months, reports CBS News Early Show Anchor Bryant Gumbel.
Richard Dreyfuss is among several influential actors (including Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and the casts of Frasier and The West Wing) who have hit the picket lines in support their lesser-known colleagues.
Negotiations are set to resume Wednesday. ("They're not being resumed," says Dreyfuss. "The federal mediators are forcing them back to the table to discuss resuming.")
But the strike may be a prelude to a much larger dispute next year.
There are 135,000 actors in SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), most of whom support themselves with commercial contracts and secondary roles on TV and film.
Advertisers want to do away with residuals, which is the practice of paying actors every time one of their commercials runs on network TV. Advertisers claim that potential audiences are smaller, and the system is antiquated. The union's position: Their pay is already meager, and the industry plan to replace residuals with upfront buyouts is unfair. (The industry offer for an upfront buyout is $2,500 per spot.)
"It's my union, and it's what I do for a living," explains Dreyfuss. "There is a phrase that I like to use: I'm the once and future actor. I was struggling. I may one day be struggling. I'm doing well right now, thank you… If it's not about my immediate contract right now, it's certainly about the way my union is being handled and dealt with."
When an actor performs in a commercial, Dreyfuss says, that actor becomes identified with the product that is being advertised. It is not likely that the actor will be considered for other commercials, especially if the ad is so successful that it runs for a couple of years. That's why, he says, residuals are fair.
Is there room for compromise on an issue like that?
"That's a very curious question since they have not opened their mouth since April and have refused to discuss any part of these issues since April," Dreyfuss replies. "And we've been sitting there, saying, 'Hey! At least talk to us about what's going on here.'"
It is not only in commercials that actors are suffering, he adds. "In the 1960s, when I did a guest shot on a show like The Mod Squad, I'd get $12,000," says Dreyfuss. "Now, actors are lucky to get $3,500 for a guest shot."
He notes that he is beginning to see how lesser-known actors are paying the price for the strike. "Right now," says Dreyfuss, "people are beginning to declare bankruptcy and losing their homes… It's very difficult to turn around and hurt the other side - number one, because they don't say who they are. We're striking against a little committee, and don't get to know it's Ford and Chrysleand companies like that."
He also claims that the unions have been having a hard time gaining media coverage.
"This is a strike against advertisers, people who run and control the media, and they haven't been making it easy for us to get on television and talk about it," Dreyfuss says.
"Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should," he continues. "And if you can break a union, and you can deny a livelihood to actors, doesn't mean you should. And their attitude is, 'Just because we can do this, we will.'"
(CBS News' The Early Show invited representatives of the American Association of Advertising Agencies to speak, but they declined, saying that they cannot comment on the issues while the negotiations are still going on. Also, Dreyfuss has been signed by CBS to develop and star in a prime-time series for the 2001-02 season.)