Fewer jobs, AI threats and rising healthcare costs. A tough role for SAG-AFTRA’s new leader
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- Sean Astin, known for “The Lord of the Rings,” faces Chuck Slavin in SAG-AFTRA’s presidential election with results announced Friday.
- The winner will lead Hollywood’s performers union through contract negotiations amid AI threats, fewer jobs and rising healthcare costs.
- The election serves as a referendum on outgoing president Fran Drescher’s leadership during the bruising 2023 actors’ strike.
As the loyal hobbit Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” he faced down Sauron and his forces of evil, carrying his friend Frodo up Mt. Doom. In “Rudy,” he overcame huge odds to play football at the University of Notre Dame, becoming the ultimate symbol of the underdog athlete.
But Sean Astin may soon face his toughest role yet. Astin is hoping to succeed Fran Drescher as the new president of Hollywood’s powerful performers union, SAG-AFTRA. His opponent is Chuck Slavin, a New England local board member, background actor and performer in independent movies.
This week’s election comes during an uncertain period for SAG-AFTRA, whose 160,000 members are facing headwinds on multiple fronts. The industry has failed to fully recover from the bruising 118-day strike in the summer of 2023 and many actors have deep anxieties about the effects of runaway production, the threats that AI poses to their profession and the rising cost of healthcare.
“These are critical times for the industry, for the studios, and also for the union,” said David Smith, an economics professor at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. “The dynamics around artificial intelligence, [the] evolving world of streaming and economics have created significant value in the industry and for the union itself to make sure it carves out a fair share of the gains.”
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher emerged as a fierce defender of her 160,000-member performers union, helping to win its most generous deal in decades.
The winner of this year’s SAG-AFTRA presidential election will play a key role in next year’s contract negotiations with major studios. Drescher, who declined to seek reelection, led the actors’ guild through the strike with rousing speeches, saying that said the union’s members were being “victimized by a very greedy entity” and spoke of the threat of being replaced by artificial intelligence.
Under her leadership, the union carved out AI protections and bonuses tied to streaming viewership numbers. But some actors say it wasn’t enough, and are counting on the next president to make additional gains.
The election, with results to be announced Friday, will be partly a referendum on Drescher’s tenure. Both candidates are advocating for improvements on AI protections, working with government to keep TV and film productions in the U.S. and pushing for a stronger contract with studios. But their approaches and backgrounds are dramatically different.
Astin, 54, is considered the odds-on favorite to win, due in part to his name recognition from having a prominent role in one of the most acclaimed blockbuster film trilogies ever produced.
He is running under a slate that combines candidates from two factions in the union that have clashed in the past over negotiating strategy. His running mate is “Star Trek: Picard” and “Anyone But You” actor Michelle Hurd, who is seeking the role of national secretary-treasurer.
“The greatest positive I have is in conflict resolution,” Astin said in an interview with The Times. “I’m very good at helping people see issues from the other person’s point of view, even if they won’t necessarily change their opinion.”
He said he is hopeful about securing a fair deal with the studios.
In general, “the truth is that no union and no management should ever want a strike — that is the tool of last resort,” Astin said.
Hollywood’s working class continues to face uphill challenges. AI is even more of a threat than many people imagined just a couple of years ago. Studios are moving productions overseas, reducing the amount of TV and film work in the L.A. area. A bright spot has been the growth of video content for tech platforms like YouTube and Instagram, as well as microdramas for social media, but many of those jobs are nonunion.
“I’m optimistic,” Astin said. “I have a very good feeling about going into this next negotiation, because it’s clear to me that it’s in both parties’ interest to achieve a good deal.”
Drescher endorsed Astin, whom she’s known since he was 10. Astin has served on the union’s national and local boards, as well as five negotiating committees. His mother, Academy Award-winning supporting actor Patty Duke, was a past president of the actors’ union.
Warner Bros. Discovery, joining Disney and Universal Pictures, accused AI firm Midjourney of ‘blatantly and purposefully infringing [our] copyrighted works.’
“People who’ve seen my movies or television shows have seen my heart,” Astin said. “With ‘The Goonies’ or ‘Rudy’ or Samwise or Bob from ‘Stranger Things,’ I’m so grateful for our craft that you’re sometimes afforded the ability to let those aspects of your emotional life and your spirit shine through. That’s those qualities of what I would bring to the presidency of this union — that combination of experience, education, knowledge and affinity.”
Slavin was raised by a single parent working at an earring business in Massachusetts. Theater provided an escape for Slavin. He rose up the ranks at the union, serving on the New England local board and as a convention delegate, and was instrumental in pushing the state of Massachusetts to keep its film tax credit incentive. Unlike Astin, Slavin is not as well known by the general public. His roles include portraying a police chief in the direct-to-video 2016 movie “Annabelle Hooper and the Ghosts of Nantucket.”
“I am a rank-and-file member standing up to influence change in this union,” said Slavin, who is running as an independent candidate, in an interview. His running mate is stunt coordinator and actor Peter Antico.
Slavin, 46, comes to the table with a more aggressive negotiating stance than Astin’s. He criticized Drescher for not ensuring more AI protections for members in the last contract and said if he were elected president, he would seek a strike authorization vote prior to meeting with the studios for negotiations.
“I would want them to know that I have the full support of the union,” Slavin said. “I wouldn’t go in with a plushie like Fran did, I would go in with a strike authorization,” referring to Drescher’s habit of carrying a heart-shape plush toy into meetings.
In a tough Hollywood job market, crew members and actors are finding more work in the creator economy, businesses led by influencers who post content for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Slavin has taken heat for past off-color remarks on social media.
In March 2024, Slavin wrote on social media, “Taking bets ... when does the first American citizen on U.S. soil get eaten (Dahmer-style) by an illegal migrant,” according to a screenshot shared on Crew Stories, a community of filmmakers, on Instagram. Slavin said the posts were political satire and that he’s an inclusive person.
“I’ve done some stand-up comedy, political satire, and those jokes obviously didn’t land,” Slavin said.
Both Astin and Slavin said they would like to see more nonunion productions fall under SAG-AFTRA and say they would work with government officials to keep film and TV productions in the U.S.
Astin’s role in “The Lord of the Rings” made him more famous than ever. But the movie also provided ammo for critics. He’s been criticized by Slavin because the Oscar-winning Peter Jackson-directed movie trilogy was a nonunion production in New Zealand, supported by government financial incentives.
Slavin said this decision makes it hypocritical for Astin to be running for union president.
“He did one of the largest runaway productions of all time,” Slavin said. “He did it anyways for his own opportunistic advantages.”
Astin in an interview said that SAG-AFTRA didn’t have oversight over where “The Lord of the Rings” was filmed at the time, so it didn’t break union rules for him to work on the films.
“There are many areas of work that performers do that are not covered, where we don’t have jurisdiction,” Astin said. “One of the most important things that a labor union does is organize, meaning turn nonunion work into union work.”
The issue of union members struggling to find jobs continues. Both candidates say they will push for better streaming residuals and AI protections.
Astin said the last contract set a floor for where the union can improve on AI, establishing a set of guardrails to expand and strengthen. Slavin said the existing AI deal was the result of giving in too early on the issue. He voted against the tentative contract in 2023.
Writers from six of the year’s most entertaining and acclaimed TV series open up about runaway production, the binge model and tuning out (or into) social media.
Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery have sued AI company Midjourney over copyright issues. Astin said he hopes watermarking technology can give more opportunities for actors to get compensated if their likenesses and work are used to train AI models. Slavin said he would like to explore giving background actors some type of residual or royalty if their images are scanned.
Both candidates have traded barbs over whether they are willing to work with people who disagree with them.
Critics including Slavin say Astin can sometimes come off as volatile or temperamental. Astin said he “understands that critique and takes it on board.”
Slavin also has criticized Astin for refusing to accept an invitation to a debate. Astin said he hasn’t agreed to a debate because of “the toxicity of the campaign strategy that my opponents have used.”
Slavin called Astin’s comments “deflection and projection.”
