“They want us to stop certain things and for us to lose money to show support, but if the roles were reversed, would they do the same?” wonders Emanuel Rodriguez, whose 8-year-old son Logan Winter is a superhero-centered content creator who frequently does partnerships with Marvel and DC.
Rodriguez is now among the sea of influencers wondering how to move forward during the actors strike, after SAG-AFTRA released a strict set of guidelines for influencers when the work stoppage began July 13. The rules state that “influencers should not accept any new work for promotion of struck companies or their content” at this time and should even refrain from posting about struck work in an organic, non-paid capacity (though if “already under contract to promote struck work, then the influencer should fulfill their work obligation”). The rules also warn that “any non-member seeking future membership in SAG-AFTRA who performs covered work or services for a struck company during the strike will not be admitted into membership in SAG-AFTRA.”
Content creators admit they were caught off guard by the guidelines and did not expect to be directly impacted by the strike, as many are not SAG members. They are now forced to decide whether they want to stand in solidarity with the union at the expense of lucrative deals with the studios and the very content that built and sustains their follower base.
“It’s like putting you in an against-a-wall thing — it’s kind of an ultimatum,” says Rodriguez, who admits he’s scared that what he decides now could impact his son if he eventually decides to join SAG. “No one knows the future so you have to play it safely.” He and his son did attend Disney’s Haunted Mansion premiere at Disneyland on July 15 — so far the only major red carpet that’s taken place since the strike began — with a disclaimer on their Instagram post that they were contracted to create content before the stoppage. Winter is also contracted for Blue Beetle, set for release Aug. 18, though Rodriguez admits he’s hesitant to continue with the partnership because of possible backlash.
In the meantime, with their usual superhero content off the table, Rodriguez says they’ll likely shift into gaming and more YouTube-style prank videos. He says his son has seen his engagement sink from 3.2 million to 360,000 in the past week, as they have halted posting while trying to plot a way forward. On top of that, “financially it hit us pretty hard — there are some brands that did reach out to us, but this was after the SAG thing and I had to say no,” he adds.
Influencer Brandi Marie King, whose TikTok bio reads, “The girl who’s at every movie premiere,” also attended the Haunted Mansion premiere in a pre-contracted partnership with Disney, after checking with SAG to make sure she wasn’t in violation of its policies. King went to Comic-Con for brand deals with Audible and Gala Games as well but says all of the work she contracted pre-strike is now complete, so she’s trying to figure out how to cater to her more than 600,000 TikTok followers. Having turned down three studio screening invites in the past week, she hopes to get more into vlogging and take acting classes and says she was told by SAG that she can continue partnerships with Disney Parks and Disney Cruise Line.
King says most creators she knows are supportive of the strike, though she adds that she is aware of a few who say they never want to be part of SAG anyway and will continue to work with studios. “I do think if you’re supporting the movies you love and entertainment, you would want to side with the actors and the fair pay and everything they’re fighting for,” says King, though she questions how the actors’ union plans to enforce its rules. “Is it going to come down to, ‘I saw somebody do this,’ like a tattletale thing, or are they checking profiles? How are they putting this in place?”
She also worries about the long-term impact on influencer and studio partnerships once the strike is over, noting, “If I’ve turned down these premieres and screenings during this time, are they still going to invite me when things go back to normal?”
TikToker Joe Aragon, who has nearly 1 million followers under his @cinema.joe handle, says although he has no plans to join the guilds, “in a moral way, that really didn’t matter to me. It feels like a weird loophole.” Aragon, whose posts traditionally focus on film reviews, top 10 movie lists and general Hollywood fanfare, has drastically pivoted his content since the strike began, now doing videos ranking French fries, chips and dog breeds. He’s also regularly joining the picket line and making strike explainer content while trying to figure out what exactly falls under the “promotion” guidelines — is simply talking about or reviewing a movie from a decade ago against the rules? SAG didn’t respond to THR’s request for clarification.
“Ultimately my love and my career, in a sense, is built off of their art,” Aragon explains. “Strikes are supposed to be inconvenient; I am inconvenienced but so are the people who are making these movies. It only feels fair that I’m with them and trying to get things done with them.”
However, he does admit that as “a person who’s built his platform and audience talking about movies, there is a concern that maybe a month from now, maybe two months from now, people do start to leave and I lose followers. But c’est la vie — I guess that’s kind of the way it has to be.”
And looking to the future at post-strike studio partnerships, Aragon has faith that influencers will return to the red carpet just as the actors will.
“If anything, studios are probably feeling a little bit of whiplash because they thought maybe they could lean on creators during the strike and now they’re realizing they can’t,” Aragon says. “When this ends, maybe there’ll be some sourness, but I don’t think they’ll abandon using influencers and partnering with them because this is too important. We’re too important for them.”
This story first appeared in the July 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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