striking 'for breakfast'
the second installment of summer 'for breakfast' 2023; my two cents on entertainment history in the making
When I think about summer, of course, I think about the days. Waking up early to drive to the beach, laying on a towel watching the sun move across the sky, applying layer after layer of sunscreen. The miscellaneous activities that can only happen when each day starts empty and gets full as you move along. Going to grab ice cream for dinner turns into watching a sunset turns into watching a movie or half a season of television. Curling up on the couch and staring at a screen makes one thing clear: the perfect pair with a hot summer day, is a hot summer night.
While watching something, anything each night of summer is an experience I hold near and dear to my heart, this years summer ‘for breakfast’ will not be featuring the entertainment media that fills that role. If you haven’t heard by now, for the past few months both screenwriters and actors involved in the film and television you consume are currently on strike to negotiate fair wages and treatment.
In light of the strike, I felt it a better use of both my and your time to shed some more awareness on a movement that is quite literally entertainment history in the making. Today, I’ll be equipping you with the places, people, and things to get you up to speed on all things strike, pointing you towards a pop culture case study that demonstrates the dire state of the industry, and sharing a personal story that will hopefully show you how this strike is so much more than just a Hollywood issue. If this sounds like a lot it’s because it is, but my goal today is to give you a new and accessible perspective on an industry that has had a massive impact on culture and media as we know it.
The goal of 'for breakfast' is to break off a piece of the media landscape, giving you an easy way to find stuff you love and consume it in a way that works for you. Just like you are what you eat, I believe you are what you watch, read, and listen to as well. As simi for breakfast, I’ll be your guide to creating a balanced, nourishing media diet where the name of the game is enjoyment through critical analysis.
for breakfast: my first internship experience
Two weeks after moving to Los Angeles for my sophomore year of college, I landed my first internship. Nothing glamorous and not at a big company, my job was to do social media marketing for a podcast, creating graphics and engaging content to promote a weekly episode.
The work was fun enough, and while running an entire Instagram account and originating an entirely new social strategy was a lot of work, it was gratifying to be entrusted with so much responsibility, especially having no “formal” experience doing anything similar.
About a month in the resentment started. A few weeks into my first in-person semester, I was training for an on-campus research job, continuing and joining student orgs, and learning my way around a new campus, a new city, and a new social environment. Meanwhile, this social media internship was the first thing I thought about when I got up and the last thing I checked before I went to bed. Instagram and TikTok. Scrolling, brainstorming, posting, interacting, pinning, saving. All in an endless loop between and top of everything else I had to do.
For a while I tried to suck it up, the self-affirmations of an overworked black woman started playing in my head. “Simi, this is the real world. You’re not going to like every task you do, but you do it anyway, because you need the experience. You should be so lucky.” I remember after one Monday meeting with my bosses, I hopped off of our Zoom, a new set of demands and requests on my plate. I put my head in hands more confused than angry, and all I could think was “How can you ask me to do all of this? You don’t even pay me!”
Yes, this internship I dedicated 15+ hours a week towards along with my daily non-stop mental energy and brainstorming was unpaid. If anything, I was paying to work, as the only way this internship was legal was if I got school credit for it. Two extra credits that were billed to my account.
At the time, I saw my dissatisfaction as an issue of burnout and poor time management. Maybe if I could optimize my days and plan ahead or care less about being perfect, then I could make things work. While I don’t think I was completely wrong and I had a lot to work through in terms of work-life balance, perfectionism, and burnout, I also now recognize a missing piece of the puzzle. Just because this was my first “real” experience running a “real” social media account, didn’t mean I wasn’t qualified to do or capable of doing so. They vetted me, I interviewed, I had experience, and they hired me. In fact, when it came down to it, I was great at my job (if you can even call it one). From the beginning I did more than was asked of me, and when I wasn’t directly working I was reading and listening to resources so I could work even harder and better. Well into the semester, three things rang true: 1) My work was creating value. 2) This value monetarily and socially benefited my bosses and their podcast. 3) I was not being compensated fairly or at all for the value I was creating.
As the semester drew to a close, I was counting down the days to when I’d be free from my job that was not actually a job. I also grieved. Almost 4 months and countless hours of my time were spent towards a project I didn’t care about, or rather, a project that didn’t care about me. I couldn’t help but wonder what all that time for a few extra lines on my resume could’ve gone towards. Meeting people and strengthening my friendships? Discovering a new favorite show? Could I have made my own podcast or come up with my own project?
The only silver lining of this unpaid internship was it radicalized me enough to never do another one. I’m privileged to even have that luxury, and I’m also acutely aware of just how many people like me, are working jobs that they can’t afford to (monetarily and emotionally) just to get ahead in industries that are structurally impossible to make it in without this level of quiet, normalized exploitation.
Exactly 2 years on, and this experience colors the way I see everything I do and everything I’ve done:
I remember a 17-year-old me driving back to work and demanding my tips back from a manager who thought he could scare me with the threat of an undercounted register.
I think about every set I’ve ever been on, acting, assisting, or driving around. Now, I agree to work for free because I want to, not because I feel like I have to; for projects that I believe in and that believe in me.
I even think about picking loved ones up from the airport. Never fun, but a kind of work I put in as a friend or a sister or a daughter or a partner that goes a long way.
Labor is everywhere. Labor is for breakfast, because it’s the thing we all understand. In our current economic system, we have to square the value we create and where it goes with how exactly we feel about that exchange. In thinking about the current strike in Hollywood, remind yourself that it’s pretty simple: it’s a labor issue.
for lunch: your favorite artists are crying for help
@FilmUpdates on Twitter is a masterclass on how to talk about the ongoing strike. I appreciate when announcing a delay or cancellation, for them, it’s never just due to the strike. It’s always “…due to the current strikes, which are the result of studios refusing to pay actors and writers what they rightfully deserve.” Not a crazy amount of copy, but a distinction that goes a long way in reminding consumers that those on strike are not to blame for an anticipated project being pushed back, it’s the studios.
Soon after SAG-AFTRA joined forces with the WGA in June, it was announced that my personally most anticipated movie of this year, Challengers lead by Zendaya and directed by Luca Guadagnino, was pushed to April of next year. This particular film delay, while personally disappointing (it’s a stylish and steamy tennis drama with a throuple, come on!), showed the value that actors produce. Here is an example of actors withholding the labor they do for the projects they work on: interviews, talk shows, and red carpets are, yes, standard practice for studio films and TV, but they also demonstrate how an actor’s job description goes far beyond just acting. Without its actors' support, the studio behind Challengers could not guarantee the same level of box office success, unwilling to take the risk they pushed the release date.
Zendaya, the film’s lead, is probably its biggest selling point. She is in fact a movie star; she’s recognizable, gets people to buy tickets, and is admired and respected within and outside of the industry. Amid the strike, I’m reminded of an interview she did in 2021 for British Vogue. When asked about why her financials are a topic she brings to her therapist she says,
“The hope is to have a career where you can be in a position, financially, to just do things you want to do because you enjoy the work and not have to worry about the other things… But I’m always like, ‘I will always need to work.’ Because if I don’t work then everything can be gone tomorrow.”
These comments should be alarming. At the time, Zendaya was leading two major studio franchises, and had starred in some of the highest grossing movies ever. She is one of the youngest people to ever win an Emmy and it was for her work on a hugely popular prestige television show. She has been consistently working for more than half of her life. If Zendaya, who does brand deals, ambassadorships, and much more than just acting, is not in a place financially to take a break, then what does that mean for every other actor in Hollywood? What does that mean for series regulars on hit TV shows and movies? What does that mean for writers behind the scenes? What does that mean for everyone below-the-line?
That’s a lot of questions, but that’s what lunch is: food for thought! What I’m getting at is if one of the most famous working actors today doesn’t feel financially safe and secure, then there is a serious issue with how people in entertainment are paid versus their role in a project’s success. This issue isn’t unique to Zendaya; her co-star shared similar comments last year and was called ungrateful by the general public. Rachel Zegler is the most recent femme punching bag to express a need for fair wages and to be met with degradation and calls to basically shut up and dribble. Writers from hit shows (including a ‘for breakfast’ fav, The Bear) also, coincidentally, face similar problems.
Aside from Hollywood’s misogyny problem, notice how divisive conversations about something as simple as fair wages is in our current patterns of discourse. These conversations and these issues aren’t new, artists from all industries have shared similar stories for years, it’s always been there. So, when an artist whose work you consume speaks about how they’re paid for their labor, listen and remember that movements start with how we talk about labor and wages for others and for ourselves.
for dinner: the joint SAG and WGA strike
As of today, August 25th, the joint SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike has reached Day 116. For dinner, I try to give you what deserves your utmost and undivided attention, and right now that is understanding and showing solidarity with those on strike. Below is some guidance for the media you can consume to keep up with and learn about all things strike, along with some media that has to do with labor in general. This list is by no means comprehensive, but includes my personal favorites to help you narrow down where to get started.
for following
If you’re one of the brave few still on Twitter, your region-specific SAG and WGA accounts are great resources for updates on negotiations and local picketing.
Franchesca Ramsey, a VETERAN content creator and mulit-hyphenate, is a great voice on all things strike. Find her on Twitter and TikTok.
Clara’s TikTok series, Strike Tea, is probably my favorite coverage of the strike, and is the reason I feel even a little bit equipped to talk about it. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
for reading:
Teen Vogue has some great and accessible coverage of the strike…
Writers Strike Explained: Why the Writers Guild of America Is Going Against Streamers
Why Are SAG-AFTRA and WGA on Strike? Hollywood Runs on Low Pay and Exploitation
Actors & Writers Strike 2023: Live From the Picket Line
If you’re interested in the current intern landscape…
Unpaid internships have been criticized for years. Why are they still around?
Hey, Is Anybody Watching the Interns?
for listening
A pod covering every single week of the strike!
for watching
This strike is hopefully just the start of many more monumental, industry-changing labor movements that we’ll live to see. While most of us have lived through too many historically-unprecedented events to count, I hope this piece provides some guidance for this one.
Information galore, very relevant 👍🏽