On today’s episode of the Daily Variety podcast, Variety’s Gene Madaus provides an update on SAG-AFTRA’s contract negotiations with Hollywood’s biggest studios and streamers. And Emily Longeretta pays tribute to James Van Der Beek, the actor who helped define television and film for his generation.
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers circled the wagons under media blackout while both sides were in the negotiating room. This makes it difficult to gather reliable information. But Maddaus, a senior media writer for Variety magazine, says there’s no wonder about the big issues on the table.
“The AI work, especially on the synthetic performer side, the type of character that is, for lack of a better word, Tilly Norwood, doesn’t look like any particular actor, it’s just a composite of other performances,” Maddaus said. “There’s a question from SAG about how much control can we have over that when we don’t directly resemble any of our members? Can we step in there and say, ‘No, no, if we do that, we’re going to have to pay pensions and health insurance, or we’re going to have to pay in addition to that.'” And they’re getting commercial deals and really having success with things like that. The idea is that if we can raise those costs, we can keep our members employed. Because if you don’t get any cost savings by doing a synthetic performer, why should you do it? So that’s important. ”
Longeretta, Variety’s features director, talks about the special place “Dawson’s Creek” and Van Der Beek hold in the hearts of the millennials who have made the show a huge hit since it first aired on the WB Network in January 1998. There was nothing comparable on television at the time. That’s why the show appealed to teens and 20-somethings. Longeretta revealed that she is preparing a permanent tribute to commemorate what the show meant to her.
“‘Dawson’s Creek’ is the show that got me into television. I have a ‘Dawson’s Creek’ tattoo because it really changed television for me,” Longeretta said. “James Van Der Beek was the perfect person to lead this production.[Dawson’s Creek creator]Kevin Williamson based much of the show on his own life, and he had to find someone who could embody the character based on himself. And that… is something that James did so beautifully. He played this emotional young man who wasn’t afraid to be a jock, who wasn’t afraid to cry or lean on his parents, who was honest about his love for love, and who had a moral center and integrity that really only James could bring to the (Dawson Leary) character. There would be no Dawson’s Creek without Dawson, and there would be no Dawson without James. ”
(Photo: James Van Der Beek)
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