While the ratification vote started this week, the union has yet to release the full tentative MBA.
Many of the concerns brought forth during these sessions have been about AI.
Read Batemans interview below.
Justine BatemanSteven Meiers Dominguez
DEADLINE: Have you read the actual MBA, or just the summary that SAG-AFTRA has put out publicly?
JUSTINE BATEMAN:I have read the AI portion of it.
But I didnt really need to, to point out what I pointed out.
The summary is fairly detailed.
I mean, the information is available.
BATEMAN:I mentioned to Duncan that might be a good idea.
He said it wont be ready in time.
But I said that one portion, you could probably make available.
Everything else, like rate changes, theyre areas that they or their representatives are familiar with.
DEADLINE: Do you think this AI issue is going to make or break the ratification vote?
BATEMAN:I dont know.
I dont know if its going to be ratified or not.
My focus for the last nine months has just been to tell people what is coming.
Im not advocating for people to vote one way or the other.
If youve been in the business long enough, you know well be exploited.
So understanding what that fallout is, and then deciding for yourself.
These are intelligent adults, most of them.
I mean, most of them are adults, some of them are kids.
I dont have to tell them.
Im just the mailman.
I didnt write the letter.
If they want to be mad at somebody, they can be mad at theAMPTP.
Specifically, post-production alterations.
BATEMAN:Well, I dont know that theres an exemption for post-production.
It would be like the WGA saying its okay if chatGPT authors full scripts.
you could do all these renovations in the house.
you’re able to get all these other gains in the contract.
Its the crew, its the drivers, its everybody.
If you dont have to shoot an actor, you dont need a set.
You dont need a crew.
You dont need drivers.
BATEMAN:Well, this is true of all large corporations.
Fine payments dont seem to deter them a lot.
BATEMAN:The weird thing about these negotiations, the AI section of it is like negotiating with cannibals.
You shouldnt be talking about cutting off your feet at all.
But the conversation becomes just, How are we going to remove your feet?
And will we be grilling them or boiling them?
And what kind of sauce are we going to put on them?
Im not an actor anymore.
But you know, if I was, I would say Im going to be scan free.
Thats just me personally.
I mean, as a filmmaker, Ill never use generative AI.
Im going to use humans.
Its been done for 100 years, and its good enough for me.
DEADLINE: As you talk about this online, what are the responses youve been getting from members?
Im also writer and producer and a director.
Im just letting them know what these terms mean.
I said things before this agreement came out at all.
Im still saying the same thing.
I didnt need to look at.
To imagine that theyre not going to go for that is very naive.
And now we see it, things that Ive said way back before the negotiations even started.
DEADLINE: Whats the solution?
I told you the equivalents in the other unions.
I mean, its supposed to be of service to the members that are in that union.
Synthetic AI objects are not in the Screen Actors Guild.
Theres also going to be big financial ramifications for the union itself when they use those objects.
So how are you going to force the studios to pay you something?
Thats the biggest problem.
And people say like, Oh, that will never happen.
Its like, were not talking aboutPolar Expressfrom like, what was it?
DEADLINE: Earlier this week, Fran Drescher called those criticizing the contract naysayers and contrarians.
How do you feel about that, considering youve been so outspoken about this?
BATEMAN:I just feel what I felt for the last nine months.
I love this business.
I love everyone who is called to this business.
Ted Sarandos had a great quote once.
Now, youre going to be competing with every film thats ever been released, because its available online.
Its somewhat of a finite number of people, and it was hard to get a job already.
Maybe its a role for someone whos 25 years old?
Well, Tom Cruise can have a scan of himself and have a version of himself thats 25.
BATEMAN:Well, lets look at whats happened in six months.
This isnt a tech where it gets better as the humans who are using it get better.
This isnt like old school Photoshop or something.
So this is getting exponentially better.
Three months, not three years.
So that all together, we could have some leverage.
Look, the whole structure of the business is this pipeline of labor from conception to release and promotion.
When you start taking out chunks of that pipeline, youre gonna collapse the structure of it.
Thats just kind of business physics, and thats whats going to happen here.
Theyre gonna collapse the structure.
Even if you didnt have the synthetic AI objects, just the digital double thing alone.
I get it, theres protections consent and compensation.
But how much can you shoot with a digital double?
Youre probably not using a set, if youre doing that.
Now, theyre eliminated.
I mean, thats just in the smallest sense of it.
There doesnt appear to be any language prohibiting scans from being a condition of employment, though.
So refusing to get a scan could also cost someone a job.
BATEMAN:Thats a good point.
BATEMAN:Itll be seen as an asset, just like a copyrighted film is one of your assets.
Amazon didnt buy MGM just for the name.
They bought the library.
This is actors really being commoditized, big time.
Its very insulting to the art form of acting.
DEADLINE: What can actors, and other filmmakers, do about it now then?
Seek out filmmakers who are doing human films and tell them you want to work with them.
It wasnt a throwback to something else.
It was really new.
So I think thats what will happen, but itll be a pretty bad before that.
DEADLINE: I saw a video you shared, it was Zendaya talking about the importance of reading contracts.
It essentially sums up what youre talking about, that its not new for companies to look for loopholes.
You made a mental note to never have those loopholes in your contract again.
I mean, everybody who has been around long enough, they know best efforts mean means no effort.
It means the answers no, but we dont have big argument with you about it.
Well make our best efforts to get you tickets to a screening or something, and sometimes they do.
But its like no guarantees.
Some companies, theyre just not going to try at all.
Listen, the other side knows what the language means.
Theyve know from having contractual conflicts over the years.
They know what they can get away with.
They know what is absolutely a loophole, like best efforts is a loophole.
In all areas, not just entertainment, its really gonna mess with peoples heads.
DEADLINE: Why do you think they didnt?
BATEMAN:They did the job they did.
Im not interested in criticizing the leadership.
There are a lot of things I would have done, which is neither here nor there right now.
What could have been done differently?
Theres a lot in my opinion, but I wasnt lead negotiator.
Theyll have to have their own standard AI rider.
In a lot of other areas, they made good gains.
Its immoral not to.
DEADLINE: I also wonder how much consumers will buy into the use of generative AI.
BATEMAN:Eventually, yeah.
I think the streamers at the very least, will upsell them.
For an extra fee, you’ve got the option to face replace.
Or they reskin entire casts.
And so theyll say, Well,Citizen Kaneis sort of a mystery.
I think theres gonna be a lot of that repurposing.
Theyre gonna be a lot of lawsuits.
[Upselling] will target that narcissism that has roared to life because of social media.
So, if theyre clever, theyll tap into that with this.
So itll be a novelty for a while, and then I think people start feeling sick about it.
Is an important element in society.
I think when you cut off that tube, youre just doing this regurgitation of our past.
Its kind of like weve been doing AI by hand by doing all these reboots and sequels and everything.
Now, theyll be able to do that much faster and much quicker.
DEADLINE: Thats an optimistic way to look at it.
BATEMAN:Yeah, itll be the next chapter.
It wont be the last chapter.
This whole AI Inferno, brought to you by greed.
DEADLINE: As you were describing that, it almost sounded like aBlack Mirrorepisode.
BATEMAN:Well, there have been decades of these films, decades of them.
Its almost as if people are going, Oh, wouldnt it be amazing if that happened?
Its one thing to see a film, and then it ends, you see the credits and stuff.
Its another thing to have to live through it.
But almost all of those films end with that.
Youre coming into this dystopia, and it ends in a disturbing way.
But I dont think thats how its gonna go for us.
