Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan told the crowd at the film’s London premiere Thursday that the cast of his film had left and are “off to write their picket signs” as SAG-AFTRA prepares to go on strike.
“I have to to acknowledge the work of our incredible cast, led by Cillian Murphy,” Nolan said from the stage. “The list is enormous — Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek and so many more. … You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet. Unfortunately, they are off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of their union.”
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The Oppenheimer actors came into the Odeon Luxe theater and filed into a reception. One by one they came through the lobby. Deadline saw Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt leave before Nolan came onstage. All of the cast members Deadline spoke with declared their support for the strike action.
Speaking to Deadline on the red carpet earlier, Emily Blunt said that she and the other cast members would leave the event if the guild’s leadership officially approved a walkout. “I think right now we are just sort of — I hope everyone makes a fair deal and we are here to celebrate this movie. And if they call [a strike], we’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone. … We are gonna have to. We are gonna have to. We will see what happens. Right now it’s the joy to be together.”
Oppenheimer also stars Cillian Murphy as the titular Manhattan Project leader, Kenneth Branagh, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett and James D’Arcy.
SAG-AFTRA’s leadership is scheduled to discuss their next moves during a news conference set to start at noon PT.
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.