Q&A: SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher reacts to Hollywood studios breaking off negotiations

By KRYSTA FAURIA
Updated 9:57 AM CDT, October 13, 2023

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fran Drescher has steered the actors guild through its monthslong strike. On the heels of Hollywood studios abruptly breaking off talks with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists this week, the actor and union president says she’s baffled and disappointed.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Wednesday that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it and characterizing their offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers strike. Drescher told The Associated Press in a Thursday interview that she did not understand why negotiations collapsed but that her union’s resolve has not weakened.

The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Can you talk about what happened in your negotiations with the AMPTP?

DRESCHER: They had given us a proposal package. We worked for like 36 hours on it. We brought it back to them. We walked them through it and they left and then called a few hours later and said, “We’re breaking negotiations.” So it’s not only baffling but wholly disappointing and counterproductive.

I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table? To what end do you hope that that will accomplish anything?

FULL story & video: https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-fran-drescher-interview-efa8d2ffac5f27dcdf0b9172e2f0e187