Dispatches From The Picket Lines: Naomi Watts & ‘Billions’ Samantha Mathis Take NYC As George Lopez Leads Reunion In LA

Sean Piccoli and Peter White
·2-min read

As word spread of contract talks resuming between the striking Writers Guild and the AMPTP, striking SAG-AFTRA members continued with their pickets on Friday morning outside film and television studio addresses in New York City.

Near Union Square in Manhattan, about four dozen marchers formed a picket line that floated between Netflix and neighboring Warner Bros. Discovery offices.

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Naomi Watts, F. Murray Abraham, Billions’ Samantha Mathis, Ned and Stacey’s Nadia Dajani, Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s Kathryn Erbe and a handful of cast and crew from the CBS series Ghosts including Richie Moriarty, Asher Grodman, Román Zaragosa and episodes director Kimmy Gatewood were among the union members lending their voices.

There were solidarity chants, sing-a-longs and, at one point, a taunting cry from 1979’s The Warriors — “Warriors, come out to pla-ay!” — repurposed as “Netflix, come to the ta-able!”

While the WGA and the AMPTP are scheduling talks for next week, SAG-AFTRA and the studios have not restarted talks since actors joined the writers on strike in July.

Mathis, who is on the union’s national board and negotiating committee, told Deadline, “I’m here in solidarity with my union. We are out here because we need fair wages. The offer that was left on the table from the AMPTP is unacceptable and would keep us in line with wages from 2020.”

On the other side of the country the writers and cast of The George Lopez Show, including Lopez himself, were out in force outside of Warner Bros. Discovery.

In addition to “inspirational” speeches, there was a taco truck, a fruit cart and a Latinas Acting Up flash mob.

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