‘Moana,’ ‘Lilo & Stitch’ among Hawaii productions halted as actors join writers on strike

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hollywood productions in Hawaii are on pause as the union representing TV and film actors goes on strike.

About 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) will join nearly 20,000 Writers Guild of America members — who hit the picket lines in May — after negotiations broke down with the major movie studios on a new, three-year contract.

The SAG-AFTRA strike affects 1,200 actors in Hawaii.

Striking actors to begin picketing alongside writers in fight over future of Hollywood

Local casting calls for the “Moana” live-action remake and other productions are now canceled. The writers strike already forced “NCIS Hawaii” to halt production and prompted NBC to cancel “Magnum PI.”

“Having been in this business for a while I kind of, I’m always ready for losing a job,” said veteran actor Amy Hill, who was part of the “Magnum PI” cast and has been working on the new “Lilo and Stitch” live action movie since April. That production is now on pause until the labor dispute is resolved.

“One of the producers called and said, Yeah, we’re going to shut down,” Hill said. “I went to the set and said goodbye to everybody. Even though I wasn’t working today. I just thought, you know, it’s really hard to just suddenly say, Oh, you’re not seeing any of those people again for a while.”

“That’s the hardest thing I think in this business, just stepping away from stuff because you do become very close to everyone,” she added.

And the impact is not just on writers and actors.

“It affects everyone. It also affects independent filmmakers,” said Anderson Le, artistic director for the Hawaii International Film Festival, “You have independent filmmakers making their own films, but they probably work on Hawaii 5-0 as a grip or they do construction but they work on their own films on the side, so you take away that livelihood. It’s harder for you to make your own art.”

In a statement, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said, “We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away. This is the Union’s choice, not ours.”

“There’s a a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic,” said Bob Iger, Disney CEO.

But Hill and Le say writers and actors just want their fair share now that streaming services and artificial intelligence are making Hollywood’s business model obsolete.

“The new models are just turn out as much as you can, but you don’t get paid for your work for on your repeats, you know, like reruns or sales across different territories,” Le said.

“When you get checks years down the line to help support you... those opportunities are over.”

“The business model is going to try to break unions, because unions are just asking for their fair share of profits,” Hill said. “Not just actors or creatives. It’s everybody.”

She added that studios and streaming platforms “are still blaming poverty because of the pandemic,” but notes that everyone suffered.

“They don’t want to share their profits, with the people that are creating the content. And that’s what we’re fighting for, the writers and the actors,” Hill said.