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Date: 8/9/2023
SPRINGFIELD — If you think the actors marching the picket lines in New York City and Los Angeles are spoiled millionaires, think again.
The overwhelming majority of SAG-AFTRA members are working people who are not stars and certainly not millionaires, as Springfield native David Starzyk explained.
Starzyk is one of those working actors. In a recent interview with Reminder Publishing — fresh from the picket line — he explained the demands being made of the actors union by producers as “an existential threat to our way of life.”
“People have the idea that actors are wealthy and have power. We don’t have power. The only power we have is to walk off the job,” Starzyk said.
He is a Classical High School graduate who attended American International College. He proudly noted that in 1976 as a teenager he delivered copies of The Reminder to the Sixteen Acres neighborhood.
Starzyk has been working in both films and television since 1993 and has appeared with performers such as Eva Longoria, Betty White, Don Johnson, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Robert Urich, Eric Braeden and Mary McDonnell.
He has appeared on TV series including “NYPD Blue,” “Home Improvement,” “Criminal Minds,” “Veronica Mars,” “Charmed” and many others. In 2010, he had a recurring role as Valerie Bettinelli’s boyfriend on “Hot in Cleveland.”
The actors union is on strike against Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which includes Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO), among others.
According to material on the SAG-AFTRA website, key points in the negotiations include wages keeping up with inflation; a better residual program for shows on streaming channels; protections from producers scanning background players, pay them for half-a day’s labor and using their images in perpetuity without consent or additional pay; and better support for health insurance.
Starzyk explained that in order to qualify for health insurance, members of the union must earn at least $26,000 in a year. Eighty-seven percent of the union’s membership do not meet that threshold.
“It’s insane, man,” Starzyk said, who added the public hears the multimillion salaries of top stars but that only is 13% of the union.
He explained there used to be a two-tier system of insurance, but that was changed and “people were cut off the rolls.”
Starzyk’s wife, Kim Fitzgerald, is also an actor and he explained that a performer needs several good jobs to keep up with the same kind of bills every month. He used the following as an example: for appearing on an episode of “Boston Legal,” he made $7,500 for the week’s labor — that sum is before taxes, and commission to both an agent and manager.
All actors then make additional money when the episodes in which they appeared are repeated. Starzyk spoke about how residual checks are vital to acting, but with each repeated broadcast, the residuals decrease.
One of the issues the union is trying to resolve is residuals from series on streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. Starzyk explained the streaming services are now dropping shows from its libraries in order to avoid paying residuals.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney has received much media attention because of comments he has made about needing to build a new yacht, a fact that actors such as Starzyk finds offensive.
According to Variety, Iger told a TV news show concerning the strike, “It’s very disturbing to me. We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption.”
The show business trade publication then noted Iger “has the potential to earn up to $27 million in 2023.”
Union activism is nothing new to Starzyk. He explained that his father worked at Monsanto in Indian Orchard where he was a union organizer.
The mood on the picket line is “great,” he said. The actors went on strike after members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike for the past three months. Starzyk said there has been solidarity between the writers and actors, and members of teachers’ union as well as Teamsters have joined them on the picket lines.
Variety reported on Aug. 1, that after those three months of protest the AMPTP is interested in reopening negotiations with the WGA.
Starzyk said the idea of using artificial intelligence is a “frightening thing,” whether it’s used to recreate a human being in a film or write a script for a show or movie.
Starzyk doesn’t see the studio executives as creatives who understand that life of actors or writers.
“These guys are just bean counters who want to save as much money as they can,” he said.
Speaking of the films and TV shows made in this country, Starzyk said, “We’re the last widget makers in America” and noted the entertainment industry exports its products around the world, bringing back millions of dollars into the nation’s economy.
He added, “We’re not going to settle.”