Contributions from The Picket Lines: Famous New York actors on stress, hope, Fran Drescher and yoga

It is day 116 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

SAG-AFTRA protests in New York City also served as a demonstration on Monday, with big-name actors waiting for their union leaders to weigh in on the “last, best and final offer” package presented by the studios and streamers on Saturday .

“We have 500 pages,” SAG-AFTRA strike captain Sue Berch said Monday in her traditional closing speech to morning marches outside the offices of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery in Manhattan. “So [negotiators] Go through it to make sure they keep track of everything inside. Trust them.”

“‘Last, best and last,’ my ass!” shouted one poster, prompting a whoop and cheer. Berch agreed, saying, “It’s not final until we say it’s final.”

Zachary Quinto, F. Murray Abraham, Jill Hennessy, Erika Longo, Lori Hammel, Mike Doyle, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Nick Sakai and Michael Cyril Creighton were among the actors outside Netflix and Warner Bros. on Monday. Members of the Writers Guild, including alumni, joined them Law and Order: SVU Showrunner Warren Leight and ex Late Show with David Letterman Author Bill Scheft.

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Union leaders also sent a smaller group of scammers a block away to the back of the Warner Bros. building — something they don’t do often. The strikers there took their chants, whistles and cowbells to the side of the road in front of a private driveway for Warner employees. It was unclear Monday whether the strikers thought there was a chance to catch CEO David Zaslav on his way in or out, or whether Zaslav was even in town.

Rebecca Damon, executive director of SAG-AFTRA’s New York Local, was also present – and did not speak to the press for the past 48 hours about the status of negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Those on the picket line said they had followed every phase of the back-and-forth talks since the strike began on July 14, including moments when a deal seemed close before negotiations broke off and then resumed. While unemployed, they said they found refuge in the solidarity of their union and the larger labor movement.

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“It was a very challenging time,” Hammel told Deadline. “But it was great to be with all these actors and other unions who are ready to support us during this difficult time.”

Longo told Deadline, “We’ve been at this for so long that I don’t think we can make a deal that’s not good enough.” She noted that the writers were on strike during their final days before the April 24 deadline An agreement was reached in September and a studio ultimatum for a “best and final offer” was also heard.

When asked how she copes with the nerve-racking wait for a deal, stunt actress and coordinator Samantha MacIvor responded with one word: “Yoga.”

“I’m not kidding,” SAG-AFTRA board member MacIvor told Deadline, explaining that yoga allows her to “sit back and breathe and know that it’s not forever and the longer we’re in it happy, the better the offer we get.” .”

MacIvor added that she had confidence in the negotiators. “I got to know them and trust that they wouldn’t do a bad deal,” she said.

“And so is Fran Drescher,” MacIvor added of the union’s sometimes controversial president. “I think she was just a great leader. She is very honest, really listens and wants the best for everyone. And it’s really hard to please everyone. It is a large union with far too many members. You can’t please everyone. But we want to try.”

MacIvor said stunt coordinators like her have a particular problem they hope to see resolved in a new contract: Unlike the stunt people they supervise, the stunt coordinators don’t get paid for their television work. “That’s the way it is [historically] A very strange contract where… a person who advances to a higher level is paid less than the people he employs.

Sakai told Deadline that studios are “still making slow progress” and “it could have ended months ago.”

Patrick Donovan marched with about two dozen protesters at NBCUniversal headquarters on Monday. Donovan, a background and double actor who got his start on soap operas in the 1970s, told Deadline that he considers himself lucky: He worked in film and television, left the field and moved into the corporate world when he saw his future met wife, then returned to acting. with his finances secure because he loved the job and missed it.

“All these people probably don’t have what I have,” Donovan said. But they also have “no choice” but to strike over “archaic wages” and other issues, he said.

“We all chew. We want to go back to work,” Donovan said. “We want to do what we enjoy. And we are on the brink [of a deal] and we say, “We’re almost there!” We’re almost there!’ And then we are pulled back. Emotionally it’s hard, it’s stressful. … But you just have to keep going and think about the good things that await you.”