Dermot Mulroney hopes actors "strike immediately" to get the industry back on track

Ahead of the Screen Actors Guild’s final week of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), Dermot Mulroney has one message for his fellow actors: Don’t dick around! The Secret Invasion star expressed his support for the Writers Guild of America by walking off his appearance on The View, but speaking with The A.V. Club, he says the best way to show solidarity would be for both unions to strike together.

“I can’t really predict how it’s going to go of course, except that as you know SAG-AFTRA has voted unanimously, or overwhelmingly, to strike,” Mulroney tells The A.V. Club’s Saloni Gajjar. “So when the WGA had voted to strike and began negotiating, that took three weeks, so that’s right there three weeks where people aren’t making money, supporting their families. Now add 6 weeks, now almost 2 months into this, where writers are out of work to prove their point and to make a better life for their families.”

He continues, “So I support them 100% as an actor. But I just hope actors don’t take that same kind of time dicking around, and just strike immediately and get this whole thing over with as fast as possible, so we can get back to entertaining America, entertaining the world. There’s no price tag you can put on that.”

SAG-AFTRA’s contract expires on June 30, and if negotiations fall through, union members have authorized a strike. That means two major Hollywood guilds would be in a work stoppage (the Directors Guild of America membership is currently voting to ratify its contract after reaching a deal with AMPTP earlier this month). Prevailing wisdom says that both unions striking could help drive the studios back to the table with the WGA, especially because the guilds share some of the same major concerns, including regulating the use of artificial intelligence and residual payments.

In a pre-taped segment for The View, Mulroney wrapped up his interview by telling the hosts he was going to “symbolically walk off in support of the writers” (per Variety). In a statement to the outlet about the gesture, he said, “Since I have such respect for The View, a news program with a heart, it was there that I felt comfortable enough to draw attention to the ongoing WGA strike for fair wages and working hours, as I find it incredibly important to continue to support the union.”

“The problem is we just don’t know… why all the money is going into these corporate pockets instead of feeding the people that create the product that they sell—and them selling is checking some sort of spreadsheet,” Mulroney tells The A.V. Club. “They’re not boots-on-the-ground kind of creators the way—that’s who we’re talking about taking care of here.”