The Black Mirror Episode On Netflix That Is Influencing The Actors Strike
Black Mirror has always had a way of captivating its audiences with too-close-to-home possibilities of technology gone wrong and now, with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions both on strike at the same time, a recent episode of the Netflix sci-fi series is hitting a nerve. In the recently dropped Season 6, the first episode, titled “Joan is Awful” sees AI being used to bring Salma Hayek’s titular character to life. With art mirroring life, this type of technology is exactly one of the many points on SAG-AFTRA’s list of worries and demands when it comes to the future of studios with those big wig execs planning to pay background actors once for their work and then use their likeness for as long as they’d like.
Studios are pushing for the right to own a person’s likeness “for the rest of eternity” which would mean they would be able to cut and paste them into the background of any other TV, film, or similar project.
During the conference in which the strike was announced, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for the SAG-AFTRA union shot down the preposterous idea that studios were being fair with what could actually be a Black Mirror episode come to life.
Essentially, the studios are pushing for the right to own a person’s likeness “for the rest of eternity” which would mean they would be able to cut and paste them into the background of any other TV, film, or similar project.
Not only is this almost the exact plot of “Joan is Awful,” but it’s a troubling one for how the studios view those up-and-coming actors who are hoping to get their names and faces out there.
In case you haven’t seen it, the first episode of Black Mirror’s sixth season, “Joan is Awful”, sees Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy as the titular Joan, a woman working for a major tech firm and carrying on a life outside of the one with her long-term partner.
When the couple sits down to binge a show on Streamberry (a platform designed with Netflix’s likeness), Joan’s in for the shock of her life when she sees that her life has been turned into a series starring none other than Salma Hayek. As Joan tries to get out of the contract that she didn’t know she signed, Salma Hayek does as well with the studio telling her that they own her likeness and can use it via AI in any way they deem necessary.
Not only is this almost the exact plot of “Joan is Awful,” but it’s a troubling one for how the studios view those up-and-coming actors who are hoping to get their names and faces out there.
The coincidence of this Black Mirror episode being released just one month before actors would be striking and fighting against the use of AI for this exact reason is unbelievable. But, what’s more unbelievable is that the studios think that in any way, shape, or form for this to be acceptable behavior and expect background and even starring actors to sign their lives away like in “Joan is Awful.”
With both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes now in full swing, there’s no telling how long things will go until the studios hear the cries from the unions and make things right. Unfortunately, not only is AI on the minds of those in front of the camera but it’s also affecting those behind it with members of the Writer’s Guild worried about how a Black Mirror episode like “Joan is Awful” could become a reality for them as well.
