Ron Perlman Says Studio Plans to Draw Out Strike Until ‘People Start Bleeding’ Is ‘War’ (Video)
Ron Perlman said that studio execs hoping to draw out the historic double Hollywood strike until writers and actors “start bleeding” is an act of “war,” and does not show good faith in the negotiation process.
“We’re creative people and we have a completely different set of intentions and management… but there’s enough room for all of us at the table — there’s a lot of wealth to be shared if you do it right,” Perlman told TheWrap while picketing at Fox Studios in Los Angeles Thursday. “The cruelty, which comes from a f–g statement, like, ‘we’re not going to come to the bargaining table until people start bleeding,’ that’s war. That’s not a negotiation. There’s nothing civil about that. That’s a threat to people’s well being.”
The “Hellboy” actor referenced a widely circulated report from Deadline, which quoted an unnamed studio executive who said “the endgame [of the studios] is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”
At the onset of the SAG-AFTRA strike, Perlman first called out the anonymous exec in a now-deleted Instagram post, which prompted a viral response the actor “didn’t expect.” Pointing out the “embellishments” that translated into press coverage, Perlman said the video’s response exemplified the “sensational ability for the press to take somebody who has a strong context… even further out of context.”
“I got back on later that afternoon to express my full intention, which is that none of us should be wishing any of us that kind of harm,” Perlman said. “None of us should be wishing any of our families that we start losing things that we worked a lifetime — worked really, really, really earnestly and loyally and beautifully — to just put a roof over our head. None of us have golden f–g parachutes.”
Perlman also hopes viewers return to his Instagram to see the series of videos he’s posted since about the strike, which chronicle “how we got here and the uneasy relationship between management and labor” that’s existed since its origin.
As the SAG-AFTRA strike enters its third week, Perlman urged studios to “throw [their] arms” around the actors and writers that help the industry keep thriving, adding that movies and television are one of the “most important exports this country has” that has captured “the envy of the world.”
“We should be loving each other, respecting each other, and dropping all of the posture that you think you need to do in order to point out that you’re better than us and stronger than us and more powerful than us — we don’t need that pointed out to us,” Perlman continued. “What we need is throw your arms around us, thank us, and then just if you have a huge success, because you’ve managed to sell something that resonated a million times over, we should join you in that.”
For all of TheWrap’s Hollywood strike coverage, click here.
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