SAG-AFTRA had resolved dozens of issues, from pension and health insurance contributions to page limits on self-taped auditions to pay for background actors.
But there was the small matter of the zombies.
The union feared that studios could use artificial intelligence to revive dead actors or create a digital Frankenstein using the body parts of real actors.
These were among the final contractual points implemented before the union ended its 118-day strike on Wednesday.
In the end, SAG-AFTRA didn’t get all the AI restrictions it wanted. But most of it was carried over, including the requirement that if a Frankenstein actor has recognizable characteristics of real actors, studios must get permission from those actors.
“If you use Brad Pitt’s smile and Jennifer Aniston’s eyes, both would have a right to consent,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s chief negotiator.
AI has become the dominant topic in the strike over the last 10 days. For actors, it threatens their control over their own performances and potentially their livelihoods. Many fear that if studios could, they wouldn’t hesitate to replace them with digital versions of themselves.
Caitlin Dulany, a member of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, said the AI provisions were the “crowning achievement” of the new contract.
“This is what we needed to get it right,” she said. “And we definitely feel the same way. I truly believe our members will feel safe and protected with what we have.”
AI was also key to the Writers Guild of America negotiations. But for the actors, it was even more urgent – and complicated.
Both unions feared that their work could be turned against them. Your scripts or performances could be fed into an AI training database and used to create “new” work. For actors, the result could be a synthetic performer that bears no resemblance to a living person, but is still composed of parts of real performances.
Neither union received the blanket restrictions against this type of training that they sought. The WGA received an agreement to disagree and the right to fight the issue in court or in future contract negotiations.
However, in the case of SAG-AFTRA, the union received protection from the use of recognizable physical characteristics in synthetic performances.
The union also pushed for consent to be required for the use of images of dead actors.
Under California law, the estates of deceased actors can control the use of the actors’ names and likenesses for 70 years after their death. While this applies to commercial advertising, it does not apply to “expressive works” such as films or television shows.
So if a studio makes a biopic in which an actor portrays a famous person, it doesn’t have to get permission from the famous person’s estate. But with the advent of AI, a studio could theoretically make a brand new western starring a digital version of John Wayne, even without the approval of his estate.
SAG-AFTRA negotiators pushed back. And according to Crabtree-Ireland, they won.
“That’s gone,” he said. “You need to go to the mansion.”
SAG-AFTRA also attempted to limit AI endorsements to a single project. Harrison Ford might agree to the use of AI in a certain “Indiana Jones” film. However, his contract did not allow the studio to reproduce him indefinitely in future Indiana Jones films.
Under the final agreement, an AI consent can cover more than one project, but those projects must be set out in the contract, Crabtree-Ireland said.
The union and studios spent a lot of time working out details about recreating background actors. On the studio side, some warned that SAG-AFTRA’s demands would prohibit some VFX post-production work, which is already standard procedure.
Full details of the agreement are expected to be released on Friday.