Oscars 2024: The Actors Strike is Killing Oscar Season

I wonder if the strike is coming to an end or not – we keep hearing it might be ending soon, and yet, here we are, about to hit November, and it’s All Quiet on the Leftern Front. Well, except for politics. Everyone is happy to dive into that.

Greta Gerwig held a screening at the DGA theater for Barbie. Imagine what that event would have been like if Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera and Will Farrell could attend. Imagine the publicity get for something like that. Moreover, David Fincher’s screening of The Killer with Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton in attendance? Love Gerwig and Fincher though I do, there is no denying the power of the movie star to drive Oscar season.

I’m not going to virtue signal through this piece and talk about why the strike matters or anything like that. It makes no difference what I think on that score. I understand why actors are threatened by new technology like streaming and AI. I understand that, but I also see a time when Hollywood is struggling to fill theaters, and its stars can’t open movies the way they used to, the Barbenheimer phenom notwithstanding. What threatens them is far bigger than a contractual dispute. Their very survival is threatened by the rise of content creators on TikTok who are driving attention and eyeballs away from Hollywood product.

Streaming is a competitive industry. We all only have so much money to spend on it, not to mention a sky high cable bill. There is too much content but nowhere near enough QUALITY content, which is where the Oscars come in theoretically. But the Oscars need the Hollywood machine.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for people whose one shot at Oscar gold is happening right now, and they can’t even campaign to win one. They can’t even benefit from the publicity train to make a name for themselves, at least not right now.

November is usually filled with these publicity events, from appearances on late-night comedy to splashy magazine spreads — to those semi-awkward interviews between actors at Variety. Not to mention the fancy parties at the Ross House where stars rub elbows with the sycophants, I mean the bloggers like me.

And if that all wasn’t bad enough, it’s Halloween, and actors aren’t allowed to dress up in costumes from movies or television. My friend on Instagram did, though, because she’s not an actor and came up with a genius idea:

If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that spies have infiltrated our culture and were actively trying to finally kill off whatever is left of the endangered species once known as the movie star. We’re watching the total eclipse unfolding on TikTok, where people really are famous for fifteen minutes, but at least they’re famous.

Happy Halloween, Oscarwatchers. We hope the strike ends soon so we can put some heat back into the season.