'The Secret Sauce Is Time And Patience' SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher Said About The Negotiated Deal

The actors union is one step closer to a ratified contract after nearly four months of striking.

The guild’s national board voted Friday to send the tentative contract to thousands of SAG-AFTRA members for a vote.

“We began this journey the largest entertainment union in the world, and we finish it the most powerful,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said at a news conference.

SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said the national board approved the tentative contract with “an 86% vote.”

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Drescher stressed the importance of getting a larger piece of the Hollywood pie for actors as the streaming model continues to change how — and how much — performers get paid for their work.

“What mattered was that we got into another pocket [of revenue], and we did,” Drescher said.

Crabtree-Ireland explained that the guild won roughly $120 million over the three-year contract for a new streaming fund that will be distributed among members based on certain criteria.

Drescher drove home the backstory of how she and negotiators fought to get the studios to budge on streaming revenue and protections around AI, saying "time and patience" was her "secret sauce," and that she drew on Buddhist wisdom to stay the course.

“AI was also a deal breaker. If we didn’t get that package... we’re not able to protect our members the way they needed to be protected,” she said.

On that front, Crabtree-Ireland said the union achieved informed consent for any kind of digital replica for a performer or background actor. The contract also sets up specific standards for compensation depending on what kind of digital replica is used.

Crabtree-Ireland also signaled that the union was prepared to rally around other Hollywood unions, like IATSE, as their contract negotiations happen next year.

More details on the contract:

• More than $1 billion in new wages and benefit plan funding over the term of the contract including a roughly $120 million fund to compensate performers for streaming exhibition that will be paid in addition to traditional residuals.
  
• Background actor wage increase of 11%, effective immediately.
  
• A 7% general wage increase with another 4% effective next year and another 3.5% effective 2025.
  
• Informed consent and fair compensation for the creation and use of digital replicas.

For its part, the AMPTP said the tentative agreement represented a "new paradigm."

"It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union," the AMPTP said in a statement on Wednesday.