Though Tony Gilroy has been a staple in Hollywood for decades already, you could make the argument the filmmaker is at his most powerful right now, especially after the success of his “Star Wars” series, “Andor.” In fact, during the ongoing WGA strike, Gilroy has been one of the most vocal supporters of the union and its fight against the studios. And in a recent picket line speech, Gilroy proved that he is one of the best advocates for the various writers in Hollywood.
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Speaking at a recent picketing demonstration (via Deadline), Tony Gilroy gave a speech where he outlined his history with the WGA over the decades. He’s someone who has been part of various strikes throughout his time in Hollywood, but Gilroy believes the strike happening now is the most important in the history of the industry. Why? Well, Gilroy said the writers know their worth and have learned from past negotiation mistakes. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the assembled studios who are negotiating against the WGA.
“We have one problem, and that’s that the AMPTP does not have their shit together. They do not know what the fuck they are doing,” said Gilroy. “We are facing across the table now a group of people who have never done this before. They’re doing this for the first time, and they have almost nothing in common but greed.”
As alluded to by Gilroy, the AMPTP is now filled with tech companies and streaming services who weren’t involved in previous strikes and negotiation. Hell, they haven’t been involved with Hollywood all that long, in the grand scheme of things. Not only that, these are companies that are typically working against each other, trying to outmaneuver their competition. Now, the studios are expected to come together to negotiate against a unified WGA.
He added, “If we’ve learned anything in the last 15 years, it is our value. We are the content. It is our ideas. It’s our ideas that fill the theme parks and the toy stores. It’s our characters on the lunchboxes and the Halloween costumes. We are the natural resource from which the product is made, and we are tired of being strip-mined.”
The WGA strike has been going on for months now. Now, combined with the SAG strike, the industry appears to be mostly shut down. There are some indie films being made, but mostly, work has stopped. We’ve seen how this has affected the release dates for major fall films already. It’ll be interesting to see just how long the AMPTP is able to hold out and not make a deal with the WGA. But listening to Gilroy’s words, it’s clear the WGA is unified and ready to keep going if needed.
You can see the full speech below:
