Los Angeles: The ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA have frozen Hollywood, causing delays and cancellations of various projects and panels. Many actors and directors have supported the strike, including John Cusack, who has criticized the greed and reckless attitude of the big studios, and their over-reliance on AI to get rid of many writers to cut costs.
As reported by Variety, the ‘Con Air’ actor wrote on social media: “Studios should get an extra day of work, scan them – own their likeness forever – put them out of business.”
Cusack went on to write about how studios want to use AI to get rid of some acting jobs. “You think they’ll stop with the extras? That’s AI – a colossal copycat identity theft.”
The actor shared a story about his role in Cameron Crowe’s classic 1989 teen romance film ‘Say Anything’, saying he didn’t get a cent of the box office and lost $44 million to the studio.
“Greed is almost a legendary comic trope,” Cusack wrote. “A fun fact – when I was young- I made a movie (using a boom box) and somehow I got points – not the total.”
He continued: “Never expected to see any money – but the movie became very popular – so about 10 years ago – I looked again at the financial statements they were obliged to report – to my shock – they claimed to have lost 44 million. dollars on the movie.”
He added: “I thought, I almost bankrupted Fox! (Not really). The movie cost about 13 million to make – which was a very small amount to release at the time – over 30 years – that movie lost millions every year! A. Neat accounting trick don’t you think? ?”
Cusack also described the studios as a ‘criminal enterprise’, claiming that the use of AI would eliminate background actors and writers within a decade and then not pay them their dues.
He also shared a video of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher: “We’re the victims here. We’re being victimized by a very greedy person. I can’t believe it. It’s very clear: how far we are on so many things. They’re losing money left and right (studios) while paying their CEOs millions of dollars. How poverty argues. It’s disgusting. They feel ashamed
Some of the canceled projects and canceled panels include big projects such as the delay of ‘Andor’ season 2 and ‘White Lotus’ season 3, and the cancellation of ‘Dune Part 2’ Comic Con.