Fresh off his second Emmy-nomination for his role on his ABC series, Abbott Elementary, Tyler, James Williams is expressing his support for a potential SAG-AFTRA actors strike.
Speaking in an interview with Deadline on Wednesday, Williams expressed his excitement for the upcoming season of Abbott, but acknowledged that the current business model in Hollywood is overdue for a correction—and if that means delaying the show—so be it.
“I have friends who are series regulars on shows who can’t afford to live in LA. That’s been happening for years. It has to be corrected, Williams said. “It’s not something that’s sustainable. I’m completely in support of my union’s decision to strike if that’s what it comes down to. I was here for the last Writers Guild strike in 2007, and I remember the things that we were talking about then, which made the issues that now are [affecting workers].
He continued:
New media is not new anymore.I think the business model needs to reflect that so that people can have an actual living and not be locked under an exclusivity contract, but only doing 10 episodes a year and not seeing residuals from that. There’s no way to sustain that.So it’s time. I hope it doesn’t have to come down to the strike and that we can cut a deal that’s equitable for everybody. But if not, then so be it.
Williams also revealed that one of the show’s writers has been on the frontlines of the WGA writers strike and said that both unions should do their part to support each other in the fight for equitable, fair deals.
“For us, our writers feel like cast. They honestly do. So many of them actually are down on set with us usually, and we typically when we do show hangouts, it’s not just cast. It’s writers, for sure,” Williams revealed. “So when they hit the picket line, we were all ready to go. I’ve been in New York the majority of the time. So I haven’t been in LA a lot, but I’m seeing photos and messages from the line left and right from people, and I think that’s where we should be. We should be there supporting them, because at the end of the day, it starts on page. They understand these characters just as well, if not better than we do.”
“We just have to handle this. Our [departments] need to be able to eat and live. If they can’t do that, then we can’t make this show be the best that it can possibly be,” he concluded.