Bryan Cranston slams Disney CEO Bob Iger at SAG-AFTRA rally: We won't have our jobs 'given to robots'
Heisenberg has a bone to pick with Disney CEO Bob Iger.
At a Tuesday morning SAG-AFTRA rally in Times Square, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston stepped up to the mic with a fiery speech directed at the Hollywood executives who failed to ratify a contract with the actors' union.
"We've got a message for Mr. Iger," Cranston said, with a crowd of union members and supporters cheering him on. "I know sir that you look [at] things through a different lens. We don't expect you to understand who we are, but we ask you to hear us, and beyond that to listen to us, when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots."
Cranston continued, "We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living. And lastly and most importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity."
He ended the speech with a rallying cry, reminding his fellow actors to hold strong to the picket lines: "We are union, through and through, all the way to the end," Cranston said. "Stay together. We will win this fight."
Cranston was one of many stars who took the stage to address the crowd at the "Rock the City for a Fair Contract" rally in New York. Other speakers included Steve Buscemi, Matt Bomer, Wendell Pierce, Christian Slater, Christine Baranski, Stephen Lang, and Titus Burgess.
SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents film and television performers, officially joined the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on the picket line on July 14 after the bargaining committee could not reach an agreement to draft a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), the guild that represents the studios. Aside from increased wages and streaming residuals, the rise of AI in the industry is one of the biggest points of conflict between the two entities, with the actors' union calling for more restrictions on studios seeking to use their likeness for digital replicas in film and TV.
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