Kevin Bacon joins 160,000 people in solidarity for the SAG-AFTRA strike

One of Hollywood’s most popular actors has joined the thousands of protesters calling for change in the biggest industry strike in decades.

Golden Globe award-winning actor Kevin Bacon has joined more than 160,000 people calling for change in Hollywood amid the first industry-wide strike in decades.

The 65-year-old was pictured in front of Paramount Studios’ New York headquarters with his fellow protestors waving a black and white “SAG-AFTRA on STRIKE!” sign with a matching black SAG-AFTRA shirt.

“I think AI is a huge issue,” the Footloose star told The Associated Press from the picket line.

He joins other notable celebrities who have publicly joined strike in New York and Los Angeles, including Some other George Clooney, Jason Sudeikis, Joey King, and Allison Janney.

Kevin Bacon has joined more than 160,000 people in New York for the strikes. Picture: Getty Images

George Clooney in a statement to the press, said: “This is an inflection point in our industry. Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living. For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors, that journey starts now.”

Some of the demands among the SAG-AFTRA members include an increase in minimum pay, increased streaming residuals, improved working conditions, and protection against artificial intelligence.

PLAYBOY STAR TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT STRIKE-HIT MOVIE PREMIERE

The first major world premiere since Hollywood actors went on strike featured no stars — and a mournful director who said he backed the walkout but missed his cast “terribly.”

The Haunted Mansion premiere at Disneyland in California was scaled back after actors took to picket lines and movie and television production ground to a halt in the most serious Hollywood strike in decades.

The empty red carpet at the world premiere of Disney’s Haunted Mansion inside Disneyland. Picture: AFP

Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) members have joined writers who have been on strike for weeks, triggering the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years.

“I’m a director and a writer and an artist in this industry. And it’s really, really hard,” Justin Simien, director of “Haunted Mansion,” told AFP at the premiere.

“I absolutely support them (the actors). And I’m part of the fight myself.”

Former Playboy Playmate Crystal Hefner, the widow of Hugh Hefner, arrives at the Haunted Mansion premiere in Anaheim. Picture: AFP

Social media star Jaycee Kawaii hits the red carpet. Picture: AFP

Disney still laid on a red carpet at the theme park’s Haunted Mansion ride, but none of the movie’s stars were in attendance, including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito and Jamie Lee Curtis, who has been active in the strike organisation.

“I miss them terribly,” Simien said. “I wish I could celebrate with them here.”

Former Playboy Playmate Crystal Hefner, the widow of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, and social media personality Jaycee Kawaii were among the celebrities who graced the red carpet in place of the actors.

The world premiere of Disney’s Haunted Mansion at the Hyperion Theatre lacked star power. Picture: AFP

Actors formally went on strike at midnight on Thursday, local time, after negotiations to reach a new deal with production studios ended without an agreement.

The “double strike” has essentially shut down all US productions, with limited exceptions such as reality and game shows.

Actors want streaming giants to agree to a fairer split of profits and better working conditions.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) also wants to protect actors from being usurped by digital replicas created using artificial intelligence.

Jason Sudeikis joins members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild as they walk a picket line outside NBC Universal in New York City. Picture: AFP

The strike cancelled the New York red-carpet premiere of Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb, starring Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt.

The British director told the BBC: “This is not about me, this is not about the stars of my film.

“This is about jobbing actors, this is about staff writers on television programs trying to raise a family, trying to keep food on the table.”

SAG-AFTRA and WGA members walk the picket line outside Culver Studios, home of Amazon Studios, in Los Angeles, California. Picture: Getty Images

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher with Frances Fisher and SAG-AFTRA secretary-treasurer Joely Fisher travels on the bus with guild members to picket lines. Picture: AFP

Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference. Picture: AFP

It came after Fran Drescher, the Screen Actors Guild president, blasted Disney CEO Bob Iger’s comments that the workers’ demands were “disruptive” and “not realistic.”

“I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch,” Drescher told Variety. “Positively tone deaf. I don’t think it served him well.”

On the first day of the strike, on Friday local time, four simultaneous protests occurred in New York City as picketers rallied in front of the Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Offices near Union Square, Amazon and HBO in Hudson Yards, Paramount in Times Square and NBCUniversal at 30 Rock.

Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon, who was on the Netflix picket line, warned about the threat of artificial intelligence in the arts, saying that AI could use “my face, my body and my voice” without permission.

“The issues that they won’t even discuss are the most important issues, and if we don’t settle them now, if we don’t deal with streaming now, if we don’t deal with AI now, there’s not going to be any turning back. We can’t make that mistake,” she said.

SAG-AFTRA is an American labour union, headquartered in Los Angeles.

But that does not mean the impact of the strike will be confined to US borders.

“When SAG-AFTRA actors are working on the movie being shot in Europe, or Australia, or Asia, or wherever, they will have to stop work,” entertainment industry lawyer Jonathan Handel told AFP.

The strike could also affect important upcoming film festivals such as Venice and Toronto unless it is resolved.