Disney’s Haunted Mansion presentation saw its red carpet deserted by its stars, who did not do the traditional promotional work for this first screening since Hollywood actors went on strike. The event, Saturday evening, at Disneyland Park in California was much less fanfare than initially planned, with the absence of the main actors LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish or Danny DeVito and Jamie Lee Curtis. Director Justin Simien was present and said he supported the actors while admitting that he missed them “dreadfully”. Members of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA have joined the picket line with those of the screenwriters’ union – the WGA – to cripple Hollywood, a move not seen in more than 60 years.
All protest against the conditions imposed by the studios. “I’m a director, and a screenwriter, and an artist in this industry. And it’s really, really hard,” Justin Simien told AFP. “I absolutely support them. And I take part in the fight myself”, he continued, adding that he would have liked to “party with them here”. The actors went on strike officially at midnight Thursday after finding the impasse in negotiations with the production studios. Like the screenwriters, the actors are demanding an increase in their remuneration, at half mast in the era of streaming. They also want to obtain guarantees regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI), to prevent the latter from generating scripts or cloning their voice and image.
