The fight over movies getting permission to film during the strike is getting messy

Earlier this afternoon, Deadline reported that Viola Davis was stepping back from her new movie G20, which she’s both producing and starring in. Which wouldn’t be that odd, given the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike and all—nobody’s making much of anything at the moment. Except that just yesterday, the actors union issued a strike waiver to the terrorist action thriller, one of more than 100 interim agreements it’s made to grant permission for filming to go forward on projects since the strike began—and which have become a source of anger and frustration for some members of the guild.

Hence, presumably, Davis’ decision to step down on G20, (which is about terrorists attacking the titular summit, in case you were curious). In a statement accompanying the move, Davis wrote that, “I love this movie, but I do not feel that it would be appropriate for this production to move forward during the strike. I appreciate that the producers on the project agree with this decision. JuVee Productions and I stand in solidarity with actors, SAG/AFTRA and the WGA.”

The optics on G20 were especially bad because, while the movie was being produced by relatively small studio MRC—which isn’t a member of the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers that SAG-AFTRA is directly fighting with right now, hence the waiver—it is being distributed by Amazon. Given that a major part of the power of the strike comes from denying the studios and streamers anything to, well, distribute, it’s not hard to see why the movie was a potential target of ire.

Take, for instance, a recent Instagram post from Sarah Silverman, who declared that she “feels fucking pissed off” over the interim agreements, equating them to scab work. (Although, since these projects have union permission, they don’t qualify as strikebreaking from an enforcement point of view.) “When SAG joined the strike,” Silverman continued, “It’s, ‘Movie stars aren’t making movies for you anymore, now what are you going to do?’ Well, they’re making movies. What the fuck?” (Silverman’s long-time friend Bob Odenkirk said something similar, if more succinct, from the picket lines a few weeks ago: “It’s a strike. Be on strike.”)

Deadline, in turn, has reported on a statement from SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, saying that, “We’ve met with Sarah Silverman and other actors to provide more information, context, and resources around the interim agreements. Our members remain united and all-in for our fight to secure fair, equitable, and respectful contracts.” That being said, Silverman’s video is still up, suggesting that the “Set me straight and I’ll take this down” clause in its caption hasn’t been fulfilled; more to the point, it’s clear that this is going to be a very messy issue for the union to tackle, and a spot where its otherwise-strong control of the messaging around its fight with the studios is threatening to show some cracks.