Actors vs. Studios, and the Existential AI War, With SAG-AFTRA Lead Negotiator

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by national executive director and chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA Duncan Crabtree-Ireland to discuss the union's upcoming negotiations with the AMPTP, the possibility of another strike, what he wants to achieve in this negotiation, why they are starting their negotiations before other guilds, the state of AI disruptions, and what the actors actually want in their new CBA (01:21). Matt finishes the show with an updated prediction on who will win the bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery (33:06). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:56.4	Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more. It's Thursday, January 15th. It's going to be a big year on the Hollywood labor front. All three of the big above-the-line guilds, that's actors, directors, writers writers they're all up for renewal of their three
1:12.5	year contracts of course the last time these deals were up sag after and the writers guild went on strike
1:17.7	the wGA for 148 days the actors a little less and the entire entertainment business in the u.s pretty
1:24.5	much shut down nobody wants that so I think a lot of people are looking
1:28.1	to see the tea leaves on this negotiation. Last week, I was in Vegas at CES, the electronics show,
1:34.0	and it did a sit down with Duncan Crabtree Ireland, who's the national executive director
1:38.5	of SAG After and the lead negotiator for the actors. He's been on the show before. We talked a lot
	...

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