Secret Invasion writer Cat Vasko has alleged the shocking reason why the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) won’t agree to pay writers on time.
During an interview with The Wrap on the picket lines at Paramount Studios, Vasko, who also produced the Marvel TV show, explained why studios won’t agree to speedier payments.
“Their explanation was, then we wouldn’t be incentivized to work as hard,” she claimed. “It’s insulting to hear with the amount of work that we already do for free.”
The ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) writers’ strike is an attempt by Hollywood’s writers to secure better terms, and the speed of payments is said to be one of their key issues. The WGA is said to have proposed terms to restructure how writers are paid. However, a WGA member said the AMPTP rejected the WGA’s proposal for swift payments outright.
“The feature system has been kind of broken for a while,” said Vasko. “One of our feature-writing proposals was just pay us on a weekly basis, the exact same amount of money, but paid to us weekly, so that when we reached the end of our term, we’ve been paid. And they said, ‘No.’ It’s not even a difference in the amount of money. That’s completely irrational.”
The AMPTP’s reasoning for withholding payments seems to be to force its writers to work harder, a monstrous position considering its plans to let writers “start losing their apartments and losing their houses” before resuming talks.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Vasko. “If you were in any other field it would be unacceptable, but because it’s a creative field, there’s always this sense that, if you’re not willing to put up with these conditions, [plenty of other people will]. I think we’re now seeing that’s been pushed to the limit.”
“The amount that we’re expected to do free work, not just to get a job, and even then once you have the job... It would be unacceptable in any other industry,” she added. “There’s a lot of times where I’ll be on a Zoom and I’ll realize everyone here is getting paid except for me.”
A number of blockbuster films have already been affected by the double whammy of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Just last week, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was delayed indefinitely alongside other Sony projects which have been bumped due to the strikes. However, the writers remain steadfast in their position.
“All the people asking that free work of you don’t work for free,” she explained. “And then we started to see that kind of model trickle into television, as well. So now the TV writers are experiencing the same thing. I’m out here to say what we do is worth something, it has value. And that value needs to be acknowledged.”
Want to read more about the Hollywood strikes? Check out how the Hollywood strikes might revitalize online streaming as well as Disney CEO Bob Iger’s comments on the ongoing strike action.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
