Yahoo News For Stunt Workers, the SAG-AFTRA Strike Is About Equal Pay: “The Residual Model Is Outdated”
As members of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America strike in part to seek higher residuals from the films and TV shows they create for streaming platforms, a somewhat different battle is being waged within the stunt community.
“Stunt coordinators for theater releases are guaranteed residuals the same as the performers, yet when you move over to TV streaming, we get none,” says Cort L. Hessler III, national chair of the SAG-AFTRA Stunt and Safety Committee. “In theatrical land, there are pooled residuals. In TV land, it’s fixed residuals for performers, so they have a ceiling on what they can make. We just want the performer residuals.”
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Including stunt coordinators in residuals on network reruns, foreign television and high-budget streaming programs is one of three proposals SAG-AFTRA submitted to the group that reps studios, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, that specifically pertains to those individuals responsible for choreographing stunts and casting stunt performers on productions. The second calls for stunt coordinators working under flat-rate contracts on streaming movies and series to receive the same pay as coordinators working on theatrical pictures.
“We have a regular contract, which says that after eight hours of work you get overtime, and then we have what’s called a flat deal, which is one rate for the whole day. When it comes to the regular non-flat deal, theatrical stunt coordinators get paid the exact same minimums as the TV streaming coordinators. But when we move over to the flat deal, the TV streaming coordinators get paid 26 percent less per day and 29 percent less per week. We want to equalize that,” says Hessler.
“TV streaming stunt coordinators actually work more hours because they prep and shoot at the same time, whereas your theatrical stunt coordinator preps, then the entire production preps, and then they start shooting,” Hessler adds. “When we’re shooting one episode, we’re prepping the next one.”
Labor hours as a whole are the third matter at hand, with SAG-AFTRA calling for a requirement that flat-deal stunt coordinators receive either overtime or minimum rest between workdays to mitigate what they describe as “abusively long hours on set.” Thus far, studios have only attempted to address this issue by sending out memos, Hessler says.
“It’s hard enough to get a lot of productions to follow all the rules, let alone a memo saying, ‘Oh, don’t overwork these guys,’” he says, noting stunt coordinators are only required to be given 10 hours of turnaround time between when they leave set and return the next day. “Performers are getting 12 hours, yet our job is extremely stressful. I have to make sure that everything that I do doesn’t kill somebody.”
The same is true of riggers, the crewmembers that use wire, ropes and other mechanisms to execute different action scenes in a production. “Superman doesn’t fly in his own. It’s our stunt riggers flying that person. Puppeteers get residuals, but our riggers and safety workers don’t,” says Hessler. “They’re doing the same thing; they’re manipulating the performer.”
In the initial contract presented to AMPTP, there was a proposal to require residuals for off-camera stunt performers, but it was later withdrawn when SAG went on strike. “That’s one of those things that happens when it’s really not a mandatory reason of bargaining,” explains Hessler. “You kind of have to do that.”
The question of when writers and actors will be back to work is one that has been asked many times since the WGA first went on strike on May 2 and SAG-AFTRA followed on July 14. Since then, SAG has entered into interim agreements with independent productions not tied to the AMPTP that would allow members to audition or engage in casting negotiations. As of Aug. 14, SAG no longer grants such agreements to WGA-covered projects produced in the U.S.
“I think the agreements are a fantastic thing, my only gripe is for them to hurry up with the projects,” says T.J. White, a second-generation stunt coordinator. “There are over 100 projects in for the interim agreement right now, but I don’t think SAG has enough people to process them so we can actually get back to work,” he adds, noting he was called for a project that requested an agreement near the end of July. “We still don’t have an answer, so they can’t cast the film. They can’t start preproduction. They want to hire stunt people and actors. It’s around 171 SAG members that would be hired on this film.”
Stunt actors’ needs are largely covered under the general terms the union has proposed, including an 11 percent wage increase in year one of the new contract. An additional provision also seeks to implement a consultation process to prevent “racist and sexist ‘wiggings’ and ‘paintdowns’ of stunt performers,” the proposal states. A tentative agreement has been reached with the AMPTP on that point.
“We’re trying to be more equitable when it comes to hiring practices and standards as it pertains to doubling actors and staying with their true likeness — race and gender — and keeping it that way,” says Hessler. “We know there are going to be times when only one person in the world knows how to do something, so you always have to leave the door open, because it’s 100 percent about safety. You have to hire the best person that can do the job, but we also want the best person to be a really good double for the actor and not exclude anybody.”
Henry Kingi Jr. is a second-generation stunt actor. On Aug. 5, he walked the picket line with his wife, their two children, his brother, and their father, Henry Kinji, who founded the Black Stuntmen’s Association. It was technically his second time demonstrating for the profession.
“It was kind of a full circle moment, because in 1980 I walked the line with my dad,” recalls Kinji Jr. “I was 10 years old, and I was walking with him and my stepmother at the time, Lindsay Wagner, and my brother Alex was also with me.”
The current movement is the first time the actors union has gone on strike since that time. “Ultimately, I feel like there will be some kind of resolution, but there’s such a divide right now that it’s hard to say where that median is going to come together because the hard lines are so hard,” says Kinji Jr.
“The guild has a pretty strong understanding of what the stunt community needs and they’re pushing hard for it,” he adds. “It’s just a matter of the AMPTP understanding that these are needs and not just wants because we want them.”
Making a living as a stunt actor is becoming increasingly difficult for reasons outside of residuals and pay. “The competition and the way the creative directors, producers and studios are going about action and stunts — they’re pushing the envelopes, so the skill set has to continue to increase. That’s tough when no one is able to work right now,” explains White. “Stunt performers still have to train. They’re walking the lines at the strikes, then they’re in the gym working out, and then they’re rehabbing their injuries.”
Carrie Bernans can relate. She’s had two serious injuries since she became a stunt performer seven years ago. One she never reported to production, the other she had to because she required workers comp to take time off to heal.
“The number one thing is, we don’t want to stop working because you don’t know when the next job will be,” says Bernans. “And if you’re honest and you have an injury, sometimes people don’t want to hire you.”
Bernans stopped working prior to the start of the SAG strike after giving birth to her son three months ago. Her plan was to be back to work by now, but then the strike happened.
“If I didn’t have residuals and money saved up throughout my pregnancy, I would be homeless and poor like a lot of people,” says the new mom, who notes parental leave doesn’t exist within the industry. “I say that not to be rude, but to be frank and honest. The residual model is outdated, and it needs to be corrected, otherwise people are going to literally become starving artists, and there’s no fun in starving and doing art.”
Noelle Kim agrees. The former vp operations for the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures and founder of the Stunt Access website considers herself a fierce advocate for members of the stunt community. “Stunt people are the professional athletes of film and television,” she says. “They are the only ones that physically put their lives and bodies on the line.”
In the same way that SAG followed the WGA into the strike, Hessler believes the actors union will follow the writers guild out of it. Just how long that might take remains to be seen.
“Hopefully the WGA can make a deal,” says Hessler. “They’re talking, which is good news, and I think once they make a deal, it could open the door for the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA to start talking again. I’m on a negotiating committee, so we’re still having meetings and preparing, but until both parties show up, there’s nothing to talk about.”
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