Bryan Cranston gives rousing speech at SAG-AFTRA strike rally

Los Angeles, July 26 (IANS) 'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston delivered a fiery speech at a SAG-AFTRA strike rally in Times Square that included a message directed at Disney head Bob Iger, reports 'Variety'.

“We’ve got a message for Mr. Iger,” Cranston said from the stage of the 'Rock the City for a Fair Contract' rally. “I know, sir, that you look (at) things through a different lens. We don’t expect you to understand who we are. But we ask you to hear us, and beyond that to listen to us when we tell you we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots. We will not have you take away our right to work and earn a decent living. And lastly, and most importantly, we will not allow you to take away our dignity. We are union through and through, all the way to the end".

As per 'Variety', Cranston began his remarks by saying that there is one thing that all the guilds and the AMPTP fundamentally agree on, “Our industry has changed exponentially.”

“We are not in the same business model as we were even 10 years ago,” he said, quoted by 'Variety'. “And yet, even though they admit that is the truth in today’s economy, they are fighting us tooth and nail to stick to the same economic system that is outmoded, outdated! They want us to step back in time. We cannot and we will not do that.”

Cranston was one of a number of stars who took the stage to address a crowd of hundreds of SAG-AFTRA members and union supporters at the rally, with others including Steve Buscemi, Wendell Pierce, Christian Slater, Christine Baranski, Stephen Lang, and Titus Burgess. They were joined onstage by fellow actors Michael Shannon, BD Wong, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Chastain, Matt Bomer, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Corey Stoll, and more.

Burgess decided to forego a speech, instead singing a section of the song 'Take Me to the World' from 'Sondheim On Sondheim'.

Baranski told the crowd “We will not live under corporate feudalism” while also praising the background actors on shows like 'The Good Wife' and 'The Good Fight' saying that she attended the rally to speak for them and demanded they get fair treatment under any new contract.