“My character would never go on strike,” said Dirk Crandall, a veteran soap opera actor. “He’s a hard-working doctor who cares about his patients.”
Other members of the actors’ union agreed with Crandall’s assessment. “I’m not trying to be difficult, but this strike doesn’t feel very ‘me,’ if that’s the right word,” said Sharon Potter, an actress with a lengthy resume of film and TV credits. “I’m having a hard time making this strike feel like something I would ever do.”
When union leaders distributed a list of demands to be presented to management, several actors in attendance threw the document to the floor in disgust.
“My character would never, ever use a phrase like ‘foreign syndication residuals’,” said Carl Boone, an actor who has appeared in several action films. “Whoever wrote this has no understanding of what makes my character tick.”
“I’m hurt and insulted that they would ask me to say that,” Boone added.
The meeting ended in disarray, with actors angrily walking out en masse to complain to their agents and managers. For his part, soap opera actor Crandall doubted that the strike would happen at all.
“I’m not going to stand around with a picket sign reading a lot of slogans that don’t sound like something I’d say,” he said, adding, “I’ll be in my trailer.”
