Notes:

and Arian Moayed, who plays Stewy Hosseini in “Succession,” compares the corporate media tycoons in the HBO series to studio executives negotiating with actors in the SAG-AFTRA union.
Historic strike in Hollywood: why actors are going to war against Silicon Valley

More than 170,000 American actors and screenwriters have stopped working, worried about the precariousness of their profession induced by the streaming giants and the rise of artificial intelligence. A history, which concerns the entire movement of the world of work.

On July 19, in Los Angeles, the actors joined the screenwriters in their strikes a few days earlier. They manifest in front of the offices of Netflix. ©Getty Images via AFP

The last time a strike emitted such magnitude shook Hollywood, the televisions were still black and white, the founder of Netflix had not yet been born, and the leader of the strikers was a little-known B-series actor. general public, called Ronald Reagan.

It was January 1960. Since then, the comedian who then headed the actors union has become one of the most reactionary presidents in the United States, televisions have almost been relegated to the status of antiques and Netflix has taken over the planet. . Yet, in broad outline, the topography of the battlefield has hardly changed in half a century: on the one hand, workers determined to snatch their piece of the pie in a "dream factory" churning out billions ; on the other, studios cautious about letting go.

In Europe, the general public discovered the July 13 strike. That evening, the headliners of Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's blockbuster, paraded in ceremonial attire in front of the Odeon Luxe, a London cinema. This kind of preview obeys a precise ritual: parade of stars on the red carpet, then group photos and projection in an 800-seat room, in the presence of the film crew.