It was Nov. 1, 2023, about a week before the Hollywood actors union reached a deal with studios that ended a historic strike. The labor group’s president, Fran Drescher, was feeling the heat from A-listers and rank-and-file performers alike to make good on more than 100 days of withheld labor. That day, she posted a morning routine video to her Instagram.
Barefaced and clad in a robe in front of a mirror, Drescher told her followers she didn’t need to “emulate male energy” to lead the union. After applying lipstick on camera for effect, she told them she could guide her 160,000 members with strength and still “rock a red lip.” In the video’s final scene, she brandished a heart-shaped plushie toy that she brought to negotiations with industry CEOs. “Wish me luck!” she said as she prepared to walk out the door.
It was just the kind of communication — informal, a little kooky and strangely compelling — that made Drescher a magnet for attention and arguably a potent spokesperson for Hollywood labor during its sprawling 2023 battle for AI protections and compensation in the streaming era. Love her or hate her, the former Nanny star helped keep the union together during its 118-day strike as SAG-AFTRA secured its first protections against generative AI and a bonus system to reward successful streaming projects.
But now, with another tough contract negotiation on the horizon, SAG-AFTRA is going to have to push forward without its erstwhile leader from Queens. This time around, Drescher has decided against running for president. In her place, another celebrity, Lord of the Rings and Rudy star Sean Astin, and a rank-and-file performer, New England Local board member Chuck Slavin, are battling it out for the job. The stakes are high, given that the candidates face a darker and more foreboding landscape than the one that even Drescher confronted when she entered office in 2021 during the pandemic.
Sean Astin (left) is running for SAG-AFTRA president on a slate of alums of Fran Drescher’s administration, while rival Chuck Slavin calls himself a reform candidate.
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Take the first item on the platform for The Coalition 2025 slate: bringing more production back to the U.S. Led by Astin, whose mother, Patty Duke, led SAG as president from 1985-88, the slate promises to support legislation that offers a carrot to productions shooting domestically. Its candidates also pledge to hold employers “accountable” for the slowdown in work by pressuring them to return more shoots to the U.S. That’s in response to the recent downward pressure on budgets that has further driven production to hubs like the U.K., Canada and Australia and has reduced the volume of work for performers.
As actors reel from companies’ austerity measures, the reform slate led by Slavin is advocating for easier access for California-based members to unemployment. Slavin says that if elected, he will push California to exclude residuals for historic work from being considered present-day earnings in a bid to further open up unemployment benefits to more actors.
Though Drescher is exiting the political stage, The Coalition 2025 slate in key ways represents a continuation of her approach. She saw herself as a unifier and in 2023 made good on that aspiration with a slate of running mates who had belonged to the separate Unite for Strength and Membership First camps. In Hollywood labor terms, that was a little bit as if Republicans and Democrats joined hands to form one superparty. Though the groups had some fairly mundane political differences — Unite for Strength represented a more moderate, outward-looking wing of the union, while Membership First was composed of hardliners with an inward focus — they had bickered, accused each other of violating labor law and, in some cases, exchanged legal threats for years.
The Coalition 2025 is again combining the two former opponents on one slate, with past Membership First supporter Astin running alongside former Unite for Strength candidate Michelle Hurd, who is seeking the secretary-treasurer position. They’re establishment figures, both having played key roles in the 2023 strike as members of the negotiating committee and the union’s national board. If not household names, they’re recognizable faces, with Hurd having played roles on Blindspot, Star Trek: Picard and the rom-com Anyone but You.
The reform slate, meanwhile, is promising a changing of the guard. Slavin and running mate Peter Antico may be obscure to the lay entertainment consumer but are familiar figures within SAG-AFTRA politics. Slavin, a SAG-AFTRA New England Local board member since 2012 and a background actor and performer in indies, has prior to the election been vocal in his desire for more safeguards around the use of generative AI and in opposition to vaccine mandates on film and TV productions. A former Membership First associate, Antico went independent in the 2010s and served on the national and L.A. Local boards between 2010 and 2020. The actor and stunt coordinator (Deadpool 2, Bad Boys II, Training Day) was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA that was settled. (Other ideas that Antico has floated include creating a tech tool that tracks content to find unpaid residuals for members, building a “Google-style campus” for SAG-AFTRA and having the union invest in gold.)
Together, Slavin and Antico have taken an aggressive stance against their opponents (whom they deem “status quo” candidates) and decisions made on Drescher’s watch. Their website supports suing the union on behalf of members who were “discriminated against or lost work for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine.” Slavin has recently criticized Astin for working on The Lord of the Rings without SAG-AFTRA coverage, saying he should be “disqualified from holding the office of SAG-AFTRA National President.” Astin says he signed on for the films before SAG-AFTRA instituted its rule forbidding members from projects without a union contract internationally. Astin adds to The Hollywood Reporter that “no rules were broken, either in letter or spirit” in making the films.
For all their differences, both camps seem focused on the basics of member welfare and negotiating strong contracts. After the 2023 actors strike, some SAG-AFTRA members have been vocal about struggling to qualify for the union’s health plan — an issue both slates appear eager to address. Slavin is calling for “flexible” health plan coverage options; currently, only a fraction of members make the $27,540 in earnings (or work the 106 days) required to be eligible. Slavin is advocating for residuals to be included as eligible earnings for union members who are senior citizens. For their part, The Coalition 2025 wants to “fight for” seniors who lost their health benefits in 2020 and provide more access for the plans to new members who may not qualify for current thresholds.
This time around in talks with studios, union negotiators will be facing a new but familiar opponent on the other side of the table after longtime studio negotiator Carol Lombardini stepped down. Labor and employment lawyer Gregory Hessinger, himself a former national executive director of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) before their merger, has taken her seat. No matter who wins the SAG-AFTRA elections, Hessinger will likely be faced with a union push for stronger AI protections and streaming residuals that can better sustain members amid the decline of linear TV, which both slates are supporting.
The union’s next leaders may also focus on tying up some loose ends in their TV and film contract. THR found earlier this year that only a handful of shows qualified in the first half of 2024 for the streaming success bonus that was a key win of the union’s strike one year earlier (Netflix hits Avatar: The Last Airbender and Griselda were said to be titles that had triggered the bonus). The union has not yet unveiled details of its “Robin Hood fund,” spearheaded by Drescher, which seeks to share the spoils of streaming success with a large pool of members. Moreover, on the AI front, members have complained that getting scanned for the job can be a condition of employment and that their current contract does not bar companies from using their performances to train AI tools.
That’s a lot to prepare for in just the few months between the election (the union’s ballot return deadline is Sept. 12) and the start of contract negotiations (likely early in 2026). The union’s next leaders will have their work cut out for them in terms of building on the provisions they negotiated in 2023. Drescher brought greater visibility and idiosyncratic feistiness to SAG-AFTRA, but can that momentum be sustained? Her heels won’t be easy ones to fill.
This story appeared in the Aug. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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