SAG-AFTRA is clarifying its Halloween strike rules after receiving backlash from Ryan Reynolds, Mandy Moore and former SAG President Melissa Gilbert.
Earlier this week, the Screen Actors Guild published a now-deleted post on its website offering “Halloween guidance” on the actors’ tricycle. In an infographic, the union encouraged its members to dress up as “generic characters and characters (ghost, zombie, spider, etc.)” instead of wearing scary costumes from popular films and franchises such as Barbie, Marvel or Star Wars. However, in a statement released Friday evening, SAG confirmed that these rules do not apply to the stars’ children.
Ryan Reynolds; Reynolds as Deadpool. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty;Joe Lederer/Fox
“SAG-AFTRA has issued Halloween guidelines in response to questions from content creators and members about how to support the strike during this festive season,” the guild said, according to . “This should help them avoid encouraging strike work and is the latest in a series of guidelines we have issued. It doesn’t apply to anyone’s children.”
SAG-AFTRA’s Halloween Strike Guidelines. SAG-AFTRA
It continued: “We are on strike for important reasons and have been for almost 100 days. Our top priority remains getting studios back to the negotiating table so we can negotiate a fair deal for our members and finally get our industry back to work.”
The clarification comes amid a wave of backlash from actors like Reynolds, who immediately mocked SAG’s Halloween costume rules and their impact on children.
“I’m looking forward to screaming ‘scab’ at my 8-year-old all night,” he said tweeted. “She’s not in the union, but she needs to learn.”
Moore takes a similar approach in her Instagram story announced the decision. “Is this a joke? come on @sagaftra” she wrote. “Is that what’s important? We ask that you negotiate on our behalf in good faith. So many people in all areas of this industry have been making huge sacrifices for months. Come back to the table and secure a fair deal so everyone can get back to work. Please and thank you.”
Gilbert, who was SAG president from 2001 to 2005, repeatedly criticized current president Fran Drescher in a scathing statement about the imposed guidelines.
“This is what you came up with?” she wrote on Instagram alongside an image of a Hollywood Reporter story about the guild’s Halloween rules. “Literally no one cares what anyone wears for Halloween. I mean, do you really think this kind of childish stuff is going to end the strike?”
Over the last two and a half months, striking actors such as George Clooney, Martin Sheen and Bryan Cranston (among many others) have picketed and publicly supported the industrial action. Their concerns include studios’ threats to replace them with AI and the lack of residuals they supposedly get from streaming content.
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