Actors hit town to celebrate end of hiatus – The Hollywood Reporter

Actors celebrate the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike at All Season Brewing in Los Angeles.

Tiffany Taylor

And now…they celebrate!

Spirits were high Wednesday evening as SAG-AFTRA members gathered at All Season Brewing in Los Angeles to toast the union for reaching a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with the studios and streamers and the end of the actors’ 118-day strike.

Party organizers said they chose the brewery because of its proximity to SAG-AFTRA headquarters, where a few hours earlier the union’s bargaining committee had approved the agreement in a unanimous vote.

The actors exploded in cheers as members of the negotiating committee, including Frances Fisher, Shari Belafonte and Avis Boone, arrived and joined the celebration after Wednesday’s vote and a marathon 10-hour session on Tuesday.

Fisher, Belafonte and Boone said Hollywood Reporter They are “relieved” and “excited” after the strike is over, and have shed some light on the tentative deal.

“Not just one thing, but the whole package,” Fisher said. THR In terms of what the negotiating committee is most proud of achieving in the deal. “It’s all coming together, just like our membership. There are so many different categories that we wanted to have something for everyone. And we did.”

“I think there are things that happened in the past that were overlooked for many years,” Belafonte added. “Not that there wasn’t a lot of power behind it. It was a different membership that came to the fore and certainly a different leader. [SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher] She was unstoppable and rallied the troops, and while there were some divisions in the past that just faded away, everyone came to the plate.

Negotiating committee members also praised SAG-AFTRA members who have shown their support for striking on picket lines over the past 118 days.

“They were the backbone of this whole thing,” Belafonte said. “Although we as members were in [negotiations]And obviously we got the best deal possible, and hearing their voices, as you can see tonight, is what kept us strong as well.

“And our strike commanders in Los Angeles and our strike commanders in New York,” Boone added. “We could not have done this without the solidarity, support and love we felt on the picket lines.”

Many strike leaders attended the celebration, and they expressed their mutual gratitude to the negotiating committee, as well as to their fellow activists.

“It’s surreal,” Chelsea Schwartz, a strike leader at Amazon, said of the work stoppage finally ending. “If people are offered to go back to work tomorrow, we could go back to work tomorrow and it’s crazy to think about that. I’m so happy. I’m excited to celebrate with everyone tonight. I’m really proud of my negotiating committee.”

“We’ve been like that every day,” Paramount offensive lineman Brendan Bradley said. “This is a new chapter for union literacy and advocacy, and I believe we will take that to the next chapter of Hollywood.”

AI, residual streaming and base salary increases are among the deal points that SAG-AFTRA members in attendance at All Season Brewing on Wednesday night say they are very interested in seeing in the tentative agreement. The strike will end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, and the agreement will be referred to the union’s National Council for approval on Friday.