We Are All Extras

 

The strike by writers and actors that is paralyzing Hollywood is about money and benefits, of course, just like every strike in history has been. But this one is also about a much bigger issue: artificial intelligence.

The owners of the studios that control the industry want to use AI to scan the images of all the little people in the background of movies and TV shows during their one-time paid appearances and then use those scanned images however and whenever they choose going forward.

This perfectly encapsulates the existential threat of AI overall. The owners, who already have essentially all the power in the matter, do not propose to even pay the extras the extra day rates or residuals (which are the equivalent of scraps of food) for using their scanned images going forward.

This, as they say in negotiating parlance, is a red line. It is one of those issues that must be fought for because so much is at stake here. The writers and the actors are in the right; the owners are in the wrong.

There is no ambiguity here. Extras must receive payments for every use of their scanned image, just as when in the old days, they appeared in multiple scenes.

Those on strike are representing all of the rest of us in the battle over AI. Most of us will never be marquee actors or Hall of Fame athletes or famous enough to be recognizable by our first name.

Most of us will only be “almost famous,” or famous for 15 seconds, or appear once briefly in the background of some main feature, never to be seen again.

Most of us are extras.

That’s not to say we don’t matter. The show can’t go on without us, or all of the other “little people” who handle the equipment, the sets, the lighting, the sound, the security and countless other details that make Hollywood and the rest of the real world work.

Perhaps no film displays the true value of extras more than the what is probably the greatest movie of all time — “Casablanca.” In its most memorable scene, the extras gather to sing a rousing version of La Marseillaise.

What gives that scene its enduring power is that all of the extras were European refugees from the Nazis then sweeping across Europe. Most of them were Jews who had not only escaped from tyranny but also from extermination.

But at the precise moment the film was made, America had not yet made the decision whether to enter the fight against authoritarianism. So in many ways, the extras were singing for their — and our — lives.

We need to remember that now, during this strike, because this involves all of us. Once again, our survival hangs in the balance.