It’s Day 4 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 77 of the WGA strike.
“Discover the past, live the present and fight the future,” was an apt message from The X-Files‘ 1998 spinoff movie and it’s one that could be applied the current actors and writers strike.
It seems timely, then, that some of those responsible for writing and starring in the long-running sci-fi hit, were outside Fox as part of an X-Files reunion.
Star David Duchovny told Deadline that there are so many issues to try and get through, particularly AI. “I think the powers that be have a lot on their plate right now with trying to figure out, kicking the can down the road with the AI stuff. What is it capable of? They’re philosophical questions,” he said.
Duchovny also highlighted streaming residuals. “We always worked in a business that rewarded success and didn’t want failure. Now, we have these opaque streamers who kind of tell us what’s a success and what’s a failure and I wouldn’t trust an employer to tell me how well I’m doing,” he added.
He was joined on the reunion by the likes of Annabeth Gish, who played FBI Special Agent Monica Reyes and Thomas Schnauz, who wrote on the show before becoming exec producer of Better Call Saul.
“It’s an inflection point time and we’re all out here just really fighting for what we deserve. As someone who has endured and lived through the golden age, the golden age is gone, unfortunately. The residual pool can’t carry us over like it used to and it’s got to change,” Gish told Deadline.
Schnauz added, “When I first started I could make a living. We had 22 episodes of television that I would work on and get residuals for. Now, it’s smaller rooms and shorter rooms and mini rooms. For writers starting out, it’s impossible to survive in this town under the current conditions.”
Schnauz pointed out the heat in Los Angeles, with temperatures hitting close to 100 degrees in Burbank. Some actors and writers were aided by Sno Balls courtesy of actor and comedian Kym Whitley outside Warner Bros. Discovery.
Schnauz’s Better Call Saul colleague Bob Odenkirk was among those outside The Flash studio, which had hundreds of people walking the lines.
Dopesick star Kaitlyn Dever was also outside Warner Bros. Discovery, where she told Deadline that she was striking for a “fair deal”.
Elsewhere in the Valley, Disney saw the likes of True Detective star Michelle Monaghan, Scandal stars Dan Bucatinsky and Katie Lowes, Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel, Life In Pieces star Angelique Cabral, Veep’s Timothy Simons, Ugly Betty’s Chris Gorham, Modern Family’s Rico Rodriguez and The Big Bang Theory’s Kevin Sussman.
Sussman, who played Stuart Bloom on the long-running CBS sitcom, becoming a series regular in season six, said that the big issue for him was residuals. “I’ve known that’s been untenable for years,” he told Deadline. “I was surprised that it took this long for there to be a major strike. I hope that the strike ends quickly because I fear it will damage the entertainment industry in a big way, that it won’t be able to recover from.”
Sarah Sokolovic, who has starred in series Big Little Lies, Homeland and The Good Wife, was also outside Disney and told Deadline about moving back to Wisconsin to get a job.
“There was a time when I was traveling out of the country. I had to have my mail forwarded to my mother. She was opening my mail, helping me with deposits, physical checks at the time. They didn’t have direct deposit. She opens a check and goes, ‘Sarah, this is three cents. It actually costs more to mail them’. The truth is, we are angry, frustrated. It’s killing our spirits. I had to take some really hard hits, especially over the last couple of years. And one of them was leaving the city that I was living in and moving back home to my home state of Wisconsin and getting a regular job. I’m not ashamed of that, because I worked with some really, really wonderful people at that job. But the fact is, I’ve put in the work to at least be able to sustain an acting career. This shouldn’t happen, right?,” she said.
On the other side of town, the Paramount/Netflix corridor was also busy with Congressman Adam Schiff turning up with SAG-AFTRA’s Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Rosario Dawson was outside of Paramount picketing. The Ahsoka star told Deadline, “If it wasn’t for the people that fought for me to have residuals, I’d have been living on ramen for the rest of my life. I’m so grateful for what we have but a lot of the industry has changed and those contracts need to be updated as well.”
How I Met Your Father stars Hilary Duff, Tien Tran and Francia Raisa were on Melrose calling for a “liveable wage” alongside Yellowjackets stars Liv Hewson and Samantha Hanratty, Scream IV star Samara Weaving, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Kiernan Shipka.
On the other side of the country, Kevin Bacon was in New York, where the likes of Girl5Eva’s Busy Philipps, The Afterparty’s Genevieve Angelson, SEAL Team’s David Boreanaz, Law & Order’s Jill Hennessy, Awkwafina, Gossip Girl’s Johnathan Fernandez and Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin stars Maia Reficco, Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney and Carson Rowland.