Tom Cruise acted as negotiator in SAG-AFTRAs talks with AMPTP last month

Tom Cruise managed to complete the bulk of the promotion for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning before SAG-AFTRA called the strike. Now, given Tom’s history, I assume there were other cities on his promotional tour and more interviews and appearances to be made. But he and the MI cast got a lot of it done and it worked out to a $235 million five-day opening week/end. Which is considered a disappointment, given how much money was spent making these fakakta films. In any case, Tom is prohibited from doing any more promotion now that SAG is on strike. Turns out, Tom was using his position to speak to AMPTP about coming to the table on many of SAG-AFTRA’s concerns one month ago. Not only that, but Tom spoke to SAG leadership about the possibility of allowing him to still promote his film during the strike.

How important is the AI issue to members of SAG-AFTRA? Important enough that Tom Cruise Zoomed into a June negotiating session to urge the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to hear out the guild’s concerns on the issue, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. That wasn’t the Mission: Impossible star’s sole concern. He also wanted to urge the AMPTP to support the guild’s position on stunt performers.

SAG-AFTRA sometimes calls in performers during negotiating sessions to discuss issues in which they have expertise. Any member can request to address a negotiation session and the guild can evaluate the value of having them participate. Apparently, the guild concluded that Cruise’s point of view was worthy. (It’s understood that no other star of his caliber participated in the negotiations in this capacity.)

SAG-AFTRA had a handful of proposals on the table concerning stunt professionals, including stunt coordinators and stunt performers, which the 160,000-strong union represents. The union also sought to institute more guardrails on the use of generative AI in entertainment in its 2023 talks with studios and streamers, focusing on ensuring that performers give consent and are appropriately compensated when their performances are ingested into the technology.

Of course, despite Cruise’s participation in the talks, after around five weeks of negotiation the performers’ union and the AMPTP failed to come to a deal by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12, when the union’s film and television contracts package expired. Starting July 14, performers began picketing at studio lots and corporate headquarters in New York and Los Angeles and withholding their work, which subsequently has shut down or delayed productions including Mission: Impossible 8.

In addition to lobbying studios and streamers on behalf of SAG-AFTRA, Cruise is said to have asked the union to consider allowing actors to promote films during a strike given the fragile state of movie theaters, reminding his union that promotion matters to actors, too. It felt “uncomfortable,” says a source who was present.

[From THR]

It’s actually very cool and pro-worker that Tom Cruise used his position to act as a middleman negotiator between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP. He was basically acting as an ambassador from the actors’ union, and it’s kind of amazing that he was able to speak with depth about the AI issue and the stunt performers, because negotiating that stuff gets complicated really fast. I also don’t have a problem with Cruise asking SAG to reconsider their stance on promotional tours. We have no idea if he actually believed he would get a reversal on that decision, but it never hurts to ask and Tom made the ask and he was turned down. I’m sure SAG leadership told him the same thing striking union workers tell everyone: it’s supposed to be disruptive. It’s supposed to hurt. That’s what will get AMPTP to the table and willing to negotiate in good faith.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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