Juliette Lewis
Dark side of the entertainment industry
Juliette Lewis supports the crews on film and series sets.
© HollywoodNewsWire / ImageCollect
60,000 people want to strike to improve working conditions in the film industry. Juliette Lewis supports the project.
Especially since the beginning of the corona pandemic, many people have been spending more and more time in front of the television. However, the series and film supplies from the USA could soon be less. Because there is a threat of a strike of over 60,000 film and TV employees. The US actress Juliette Lewis (48) illuminated in a long post on Instagramhow difficult the working conditions in the entertainment industry can often be.
Lewis calls on her colleagues to talk about how it could be perfectly normal to work 15 to 17 hours a day, sometimes six days a week. Even as a teenager, she was taught to work when she was sick, otherwise it could cost “tens of thousands of dollars”. In addition, one could then be labeled as “problematic”. You yourself have already worked with the flu and migraines. On the set of a film, she even struggled with pneumonia for two weeks that made her think “I might die”.
Better to be ill than not to shoot
Apparently, this was always better for those responsible than postponing the schedule in order to protect a person’s health. Because that simply never happened. However, all of this is nothing compared to the work that the employees sometimes have to do behind the scenes. Because Lewis is grateful that she has this work ethic, “but I’m an actress. So when I think of the crew who shows up hours before the actors and hours after the actors go home, who are asked to do miracles every day, that’s a completely different story […]”
Employees are often threatened that someone else could do their job too. Although there have been important changes since the beginning of the corona pandemic, Lewis noticed these above all in Canada. Producers still demanded that people “work tirelessly and always do miracles to ‘save them money’ instead of creating schedules that can be implemented without this constant pressure.” If people are so overworked, there could also be serious accidents that they have already witnessed. That’s why, according to Lewis, every actor and actress should stand up for their crew.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is currently in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). However, if the union’s talks with the studio representatives are unsatisfactory, a nationwide strike of around 60,000 employees is planned from October 18. The IATSE demands include wage increases for employees, adequate rest periods and meal breaks.