Dispatches From The Picket Lines: Hear From Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Kal Penn, Others As Actors & Writers Hit The Streets Of Manhattan

It’s Day 5 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 79 of the WGA strike. 

Writers and actors on strike simultaneously for the first time in more than 60 years fanned out across Manhattan on Tuesday morning with renewed demands for better pay, more job security and limits on the use of artificial intelligence in film and television. 

The Writers Guild of America and the SAG-AFTRA ran picket lines at four locations near the offices of NBCUniversal, Paramount, Amazon, HBO, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery. WGA marchers said they welcomed SAG-AFTRA members joining them on strike as of Friday, after months of backing the Writers Guild in its dispute with the major film and television production companies. 

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“It does feel different,” writer, comedian and WGA East member Josh Gondelman said outside NBCUniversal headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where marchers included acting couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and veteran Law & Order: Criminal Intent actress Kathryn Erbe. “It’s really heartening to have this infusion of energy and the same righteous anger out on the lines that we had.”

Gondelman noted how much actor support the writers already have had since they went on strike in early May. “There have been a ton of SAG-AFGTRA members that have been out there for 75, 78 days already, which I think just shows you how in it that union is as well,” he said. “They’ve already been out here. They know the fight. They’re in the fight. And it’s one fight, really. “

Gondelman said the two unions striking together creates more solidarity and more resolve for everyone on the picket lines, but he wasn’t yet prepared to say what impact that dynamic might have on the strike’s timeline or the willingness of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to resume negotiations. “I’m not trying to conjecture too much,” Gondelman said. “We’re in it ’til we get a fair deal. That’s been our stance when it was just the writers. But it’s really encouraging, this infusion of noise and this infusion of energy.”

RELATED: How The SAG-AFTRA Strike Could Upend This Year’s Movie Release Schedule & Box Office

Deadline will update this post throughout the day. Meanwhile, here are some more testimonials and images from the streets of New York today:

Scott Shilstone and Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.

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