Oppenheimer Cast Abandoning Premiere Due To Strike
The cast of Oppenheimer walked out of the movie's premiere showing solidarity with the SAG strike that began on Thursday.
The decision of SAG-AFTRA to join the WGA on strike coincided with today’s UK Oppenheimer premiere, and the film’s stars walked out of the event in support of the strike.
Ahead of the strike announcement, Emily Blunt told Deadline on the red carpet, “If they call it, we’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone.” The cast then walked out together ahead of the screening and went to the West End for dinner.
The contract negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP broke down Wednesday night, and there’s no word when they might reconvene to try to come to agreeable terms again.
Sources say that Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan and his creative team also left for dinner with some Universal executives, so some actors had to sit separately due to SAG-AFTRA rules about accepting hospitality from studios during a strike.
SAG-AFTRA joining the picket line is certainly a historic event, as the guild hasn’t gone on strike since 1980 and hasn’t gone on strike alongside the writers since 1960. The contract negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP broke down Wednesday night, and there’s no word when they might reconvene to try to come to agreeable terms again.
The cast of Oppenheimer leaving the premiere will likely be the first of many upcoming premieres that won’t have cast members attending. As part of the strike, SAG-AFTRA actors (essentially all of Hollywood) won’t be allowed to work on new projects or participate in the promotion of films and TV shows. Not only will the studios not be able to film their new projects, but they have also lost their best marketers.
“If they call it, we’ll be leaving together as cast in unity with everyone.”
-Emily Blunt
The WGA has been on strike since May after negotiations fell through between that guild and the AMPTP representing the studios. The main concerns of the negotiations include the regulation of AI in the industry and renegotiating residuals for streaming projects.
Picketing for SAG-AFTRA members is expected to begin on Friday, though there have been numerous actors who already joined the front lines alongside the WGA since that strike began.
While the stipulations of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike mean that most Hollywood productions are pretty much shut down for now, we’ll still see movies that have completed production coming out over the coming year, such as Barbie and Oppenheimer in July.
SAG-AFTRA joining the picket line is certainly a historic event, as the guild hasn’t gone on strike since 1980 and hasn’t gone on strike alongside the writers since 1960.
These massive blockbusters have already generated plenty of hype and should see people flocking in droves to see them in theaters. Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, should also bring in a lot of money during its opening weekend.
It remains to be seen how long these strikes will last, but the joint interest of the actors and writers could possibly lead to the strike ending earlier, as the studios’ release schedules will likely be in complete disarray if they can’t shoot anything for the next couple of months.
In any case, you’ll be able to see Oppenheimer next weekend on the big screen, with Cillian Murphy starring as the titular scientist and atomic bomb creator J. Robert Oppenheimer. Along with Cillian Murphy, the Christopher Nolan-directed film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Emma Dumont, Casey Affleck, and Kenneth Branagh.
