Cosplayers join actors to support SAG-AFTRA strike at San Diego Comic-Con 2023
Actors, cosplayers, and a congressman hit the streets of San Diego during Comic-Con 2023 on Friday to show their support for the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
The annual fan event is lacking its usual star power as Hollywood actors went on strike less than a week before the event kicked off, joining their counterparts in the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since May, both due to failed contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The actors' union issued strict limitations on promoting struck work that included attending fan conventions to discuss current, future, or past TV or film projects.
Actors have marched in picket lines outside networks and studios in major cities since the strike began, and that extended to San Diego where a group of local actors marched just across the street from the San Diego Convention Center on Friday afternoon. The group was joined by fans in full cosplay gear and even U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, who is no stranger to merging pop culture and politics.
"Best way to start the day in San Diego is to join @sagaftra and the workers who power the popular arts and entertainment economy. Let's go! ✊🏾," the congressman from California tweeted alongside a photo of him with demonstrators.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are fighting for better wages and residuals from their work that's featured on streaming platforms, as well as resisting the use of artificial intelligence to replace background actors in film and television.
"During COVID, what did you do to survive? You watched Netflix, you watched movies, you watch Disney, right? We were there for you," actor Mike Egbert, who has worked on How I Met Your Father and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, told San Diego's ABC 10News at the protest. "We still want to be there for you, we just want to be able to pay our bills."
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