SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP should be ashamed that, given what we’ve learned in the post-#MeToo era, they couldn’t even match the common sense protections afforded our Canadian brothers and sisters by their union, ACTRA.
Producers, after working with Time’s Up, walked into these negotiations willing to hold safety meetings with the entire cast and crew at the start of any shoot day involving intimate scenes. They walked out having agreed to ZERO safety meetings. What went wrong?
Members have asked that call sheets have four different people listed from production to whom they can turn if something goes wrong on the day. There is no such requirement in this proposed contract.
In Canada, the actor can always have an Intimacy Coordinator, a union rep or another representative of their choosing present during those types of shoots--not under this proposed SAG-AFTRA contract.
Leadership has embraced the idea of Intimacy Coordinators but so far there’s no path to implementation. Funny how Canada mentions Intimacy Coordinators in their Best Practices document. On the day of the shoot, SAG-AFTRA members are still on their own with no advocate. At best, there’s supposed to be a negotiated nudity rider in your trailer with your contract. Maybe it’ll be there, maybe it won’t. No penalty if it isn’t.
In Canada, Producers are required to give “a full, true and complete disclosure of the activity required with storyboard, script, location of the shoot, other performers in the scene if they will be nude or semi-nude.” Not so for us. Sides only have to be attached “IF PRACTICABLE.” What does that mean? What are they hiding? It’s time for our union to step up, do its job and protect us from those who would do us harm.
In the proposed contract, the actor now is supposed to be given 48 hours notice before an intimate scene is to be filmed so he/she/they can decide if they want to do that or not. The proposed contract allows that the Producer must provide a phone number so that the actor can discuss as much of the scene available to them with whomever this person is. Why was the Director not the person assigned to speak with the actor? What we’re being told is a gain in this proposed contract, really isn’t. It doesn’t go far enough. Performers who do nudity want full choreography of intimate scenes so that there are no surprises on the day of the shoot. Making the actor talk to the Producer takes the decision as to how the intimacy scene will be shot out of the realm of art and into the realm of commerce. The Director is now to be told after the fact, but before shooting, what has been negotiated that the actor will do or will not do. How is this discussion with someone they’ve probably never met about their body any kind of an improvement?
In Canada, if the actor wants a body double to do what they are unwilling to do, they have 50% approval of their replacement and review of the final cut. Not us.
Canada allows full nudity in the final callback with NO intimate touching whatsoever. We don’t have that protection.
In Canada, acting naked can only happen in the final camera rehearsal and filming. We don’t have that protection.
SAG-AFTRA members wanted no viewing of the intimate scenes on monitors. Didn’t get that.
SAG-AFTRA members wanted cell phones confiscated for the duration of shooting intimate scenes. Cell phones are prohibited, but there’s no penalty if any of the crew pulls out their phone and films what’s happening on the monitor to send to their buddy. No protection there.
SAG-AFTRA members wanted full barriers over genitals and modesty garments. We didn’t get that. We got robes, but we didn’t get the wardrobe person assigned to hand it to them, like they do in Canada.
We wanted closed sets defined and enforced. Didn’t get that.
In fact, there are no penalties if a production ever crosses the line. None whatsoever.
When it was written, the much touted 2018 Code of Conduct and Rule One outlawing auditions in hotel rooms imposed zero penalties. We don’t even know if the negotiating committee asked for these penalties. All we know is that this proposed contract doesn’t have them.
What we do have in this proposed contract is one, single, online sexual harassment training per year which is already mandated for most employers in most states anyway. To claim that the inclusion of a sexual harassment definition as some kind of a gain is a joke because sexual harassment, defined by law as a form of discrimination, is already a crime.