LOS ANGELES — Sean Astin has taken on the presidency of the SAG-AFTRA at a particularly perilous time for the actors union, and for Hollywood. There’s the threat of human actors being replaced by artificial intelligence. The ongoing upheavals of streaming. Studio consolidation and realignment.
Nearly three years ago, the actors launched a four-month strike, securing some protections and higher wages. And on Monday, negotiations on a new three-year contract with studio and streamers are already beginning again.
So what actor would want this role?
“In my imagination, growing up, I would want to have been in a place of consequence,” he told The Associated Press in an interview in his office at the guild’s Los Angeles headquarters. “And so to have the opportunity to be in a role, leading a union of 160,000 people at this moment of consequence when there’s turmoil, when there’s fear and uncertainty and danger, this is exactly where I want to be.”
A life as an actor and union member
Astin, an elected board member during the strike who left his mark as a fiery rally speaker, won the presidency in September, replacing the outgoing Fran Drescher.
As an actor, the now-54-year-old is known as the leader of a scrappy band of kids in 1985’s “The Goonies,” an aspiring football player with never-ending grit in 1993’s “Rudy,” and Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins’ steadfast bestie in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
He’s a SAG lifer, becoming a member as a young boy in 1981. His mother, Oscar winner Patty Duke, who died in 2016, was president of the guild from 1985 to 1988, before it added the -AFTRA in a 2012 merger.
His father, John Astin, now 95, is best known for playing Gomez on “The Addams Family.” His brother Mackenzie Astin is a child star turned journeyman actor who recently had a three-episode arc on “The Pitt.”
Sean Astin said he hopes to get actors like his brother, who rely heavily on small ongoing payments for guest roles, to have streaming residuals pay as well as they do for broadcast TV.
“I can’t wait to be at a Thanksgiving or a Christmas with him and nudge him and say, ‘Hey, how’s your residuals doing?’” he said.
The coming contract talks
Astin said he has reason to believe the new talks won’t start with actors and their employers at each other’s throats.
“They came in last time provoking the fight,” he said, referring to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “They wanted the strike. No question in my mind. I was in those rooms every single day. They’re sending much different signals now. They’re sending signals of wanting stability, of wanting to work as partners again.”
The AMPTP said in a statement to the AP that the group representing studios and streamers looked “forward to working collaboratively with our partners at SAG-AFTRA as we commence formal bargaining.”
“By taking the time to thoughtfully engage on the challenges confronting our industry, we are optimistic that, together, we can reach a fair deal that reflects our shared commitment to supporting our industry’s talented performers and promoting long-term stability,” the statement said.
Astin said the guild won’t yield any of the ground it won in 2023, whether it be wage increases or requiring informed consent for the use of actors’ likenesses via AI. and that means they can’t disarm in advance — striking is not out of the question, whatever the lingering pains from last time.
“There’s only one real tool available to a labor union in a negotiation, and that’s saying no,” Astin said. “We reserve the right to say no again if we need to.”
On March 1, the guild will hold the world’s most glamorous union meeting, the newly renamed Actor Awards, where high-profile members like Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Stone are nominated. But the vast majority of acting members don’t even make the approximately $27,000 a year required to qualify for guild health insurance. And Astin represents the guild’s full membership — including video game actors, puppeteers, broadcast journalists and TV announcers. He’s spent much of his time since his election — and plenty before that — learning the specific concerns of, for example, stunt drivers or actors who live in Minnesota or New Mexico.
“I will say to everybody, I’m gonna fight as hard for you as anybody has ever fought for you, for your issue,” he said. “People say, ‘You can’t fight for everybody equally.’ I say, ‘Yes, I can.’”
The best parts of his best characters
A speech Samwise gives in “The Two Towers” — “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for” — became an Astin rallying cry during the strike.
He said that he can also draw from his other characters for traits he ought to embody now.
“The qualities that make Rudy special — determination, grit, inspiration, aspiration — whatever is a part of that thing that makes him, makes his story touch the lives of so many people, is the part of myself that I want to pour into this job on behalf of my members,” he said.
And then there’s Mikey from “The Goonies.”
“If you think of ‘The Goonies,’ ‘The Goonies’ is about saving their home,” he said. “It’s fun, there’s a pirate ship, but it’s about a group of friends who don’t want to be overtaken by industrialists. Maybe that’s the most important one.”
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