There is only part of this job which I really don’t like: celebrity Halloween costume coverage. I don’t understand why celebrities, who spend most of their lives playing dress up for work, are enamored with Halloween. It’s just my hangup, I know, and I get that many people love Halloween and all of the costumes, etc. Well, SAG-AFTRA is watching. The actors’ union knows that their union members are going to put all of their unemployed energy into Halloween costumes and parties this year. So SAG-AFTRA made some Halloween costume guidelines.
Boo! SAG-AFTRA has issued some strict Halloween costume guidelines for striking actors. The union is prohibiting actors from dressing up as popular characters from struck content and then posting the images on social media. That means some of the most popular Halloween costumes this year — such as Barbie and Wednesday Addams — are not allowed.
Instead, the guild told members on Thursday to “choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures — ghost, zombie, spider, etc.” (Surely, however, somebody is going to show up at a party as a fake Carol Lombardini).
Members can dress up as characters from non-struck content, however, like an animated TV show. Marvel superheroes, however, are not allowed despite having comic book roots, because they’re owned by Disney.
Ryan Reynolds jokingly posted about the rule on X: “I look forward to screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 year old all night. She’s not in the union but she needs to learn”
A truly determined fan could cite character ownership technicalities here — Barbie, for instance, is owned by Mattel, yet the appearance of promoting the summer’s biggest movie from a major studio would surely be frowned upon and the whole idea is to be mindful of the message that a costume might send.
“Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract,” the post continued.
The SAG-AFTRA strike is nearing its 100th day after talks broke off with studios on Saturday without a deal.
This is all the things – clever, stupid, hilarious, sad, real and a joke. Like, it reads as some fun guidelines for striking actors, but it’s actually real, and you know that there are absolutely actors who will have to change their costumes at the last minute. The explanations are going to get wildly baroque too – “No, I’m not dressed as Barbie from the movie, I’m dressed as Margot Robbie promoting Barbie pre-strike!” “No, I’m not dressed as Wednesday Addams, I’m dressed as a goth girl’s reimagined Wednesday Addams from the original Addams Family show.” Oh, this means no Harley Quinn, no Joker, none of that. Celebrities are going to be dressing like Mitch McConnell or George Santos.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Warner Bros/Barbie.
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- Venice, CA – Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling share a laugh as they film a rollerblading scene for ‘Barbie’ in Venice Beach in very bright and colorful neon attire. Pictured: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling BACKGRID USA 28 JUNE 2022 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
If they were going to do this, it seems like they should have done it earlier. I do get the point, but it also seems a little silly to me.
SAG-AFTRA was still trying to negotiate last week and were probably optimistic that a deal could be reached. Once negotiations fell apart, someone in the union’s leadership probably realized that Halloween was quickly approaching and some guidelines should be set for clarity’s sake.
If they didn’t think of it until that late in the game, then they should have left it alone imo.
On one hand, sure, this makes sense.
On the other hand, if they were going to do this, the time to do it was well over a month ago.
Celebs with all that extra time will have been planning their costumes for ages.
And the regular actors who don’t make a ton of money who now have to buy/make/what-have-you a SECOND costume because of a last minute directive are the ones who are getting screwed here.
Exactly, a last minute punishment for people who are out of work. Brilliant strategy!
I have always been jealous of Americans for having Halloween.
We have carnival for dressing up but it’s mostly just celebrated in the Catholic parts of the country and I am in the protestant part.
We will do anything for money. And candy!
Halloween is the BEST holiday! I just started a new job and my coworkers are like, “do you love all the holidays this much, or just Halloween?” hahaha. got me, it’s mostly Halloween!
Thats a bit much. They are going to make public not take them seriously
This gonna backfire.
Well they’re not asking the PUBLIC not to dress as characters – they are telling striking actors. And I think it’s perfectly reasonable considering the circumstances.
What about characters that have appeared in both live action and animated movies/TV shows? There have been multiple animated versions of The Addams Family, for example. Loophole?
I’d dress up as Bob Iger, purse strings firmly pulled tight, if I were ever looking for a Halloween costume this year.
We don’t really celebrate Halloween over here though, not like in the US.
No you nailed it, very spooky! Haha
This is perfect. Everyone should dress up as the evil studio exec of their choice.
This seems a little extreme to me. I wonder what about characters from old movies with the rights still owned by major studios?
I don’t think it is. It’s guidelines for striking actors – negotiations are at a standstill – the AMPTP refuses to come to the table with a new deal – literally they have refused to budge from the offer that caused the strike in the first place. It makes perfect sense that SAG-AFTRA doesn’t want striking actors promoting popular films/TV shows with costumes. I mean it doesn’t really affect anyone but SAG-AFTRA members. Not Joe Schmoe on the street.
Is this because of the negotiation breakdown? I just remember them specifically saying viewing Barbie (and Oppenheimer but I don’t know if anyone’s dressing up with that theme) wasn’t crossing picket lines or consuming struck content over the summer so I’m not quite understanding this…
Maybe viewing is one thing but dressing up is promotion? It’s so odd, it really feels like they should have just left it alone if they weren’t going to put this out a month ago.
This is too extreme. I get about not promoting current or past projects but Halloween is meant to be a fun “holiday” where adults and children can dress up however they want for the most part. Are actors’ kids going to be penalized as well? So many girls are going to want to dress up as Barbie and if I were an actor with these stupid guidelines, I’d feel pressured to have my kids not dress up as any of these characters as well. I understand the strike but SAG-AFTRA doesn’t get to police Halloween. And they should have published the guidelines much earlier than 11 days before Halloween. This sounds like a half-baked last minute “rule.”
Unless the kid is a SAG-AFTRA member I highly doubt it applies to them. This is about all of the huge Halloween parties that actors like to throw – it’s a pretty annual thing in Hollywood.
I hate that this strike came during Barbie! I’ve waited my whole life to revel in Barbie being celebrated as something good and enjoying it and it came out on my kid’s birthday and I was ready to ride that wave and it got cut short! I also hope all kids that are union members are exempt from this rule. They already have to do a grown-up job, I hope they are allowed to just be kids on Halloween. If they can give waivers for indie films, etc., I hope they give waivers to the kids for this.
I think this is fair. Plus, any celebs wanting to dress as Barbie and Ken can just dress as Taylor and Travis instead – problem solved 😎
Controlling what workers do in their private lives seems a little bit much, but then if it’s only about the promotion on social media bit, then maybe ok? But even then, I’d want them to draw a line between private accounts and public ones.