🌋 You are angry.

Over the course of this email I am going to ask you to sign this petition. Don’t feel you have to sign it now. Keep reading and we’ll see how you get on.

It’s hard not to be angry.

Angry at agents

Angry at casting

Angry at the industry

Angry at politicians

Angry at tech bros

Angry at the world

Angry at yourself

It’s hard not to be angry.

But we are told time and time again we must. Not be angry.

We need to control our anger.

We must be reasonable.

Calm

Polite.

Your anger is not acceptable here.

It’s not useful.

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Here’s the petition again.

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But its not the emotion that scares people.

After all, everyone feels the emotion.

The energy that threatens to erupt out of us when we can’t contain it any longer – that’s what scares us.

That vibrating, pulsating, whir, building, building, building.

A lit firework, slowing tilting in the wet mud towards a group of people. Either we extinguish it effectively at the source or deal with the problem it will cause. One is easier than the other.

So we tell our children to contain it: “you musn’t be angry.”

Until they can contain it themselves: “I musn’t be angry”

And that’s when we start believing the lie – that our anger isn’t useful.

​Here it is that petition one more time​

On Monday night I was at Equity’s Demand Better in Film & TV rally. And what i witnessed there was nothing short of extraordinary.

100+ angry actors.

In a public garden in Soho.

100+ angry actors refusing to say “we mustn’t be angry”

“We must calm down”

“We must be polite.”

No.

100+ angry actors pulsating, vibrating, building, building, building

Refusing to contain themselves:

The conditions in our industry are unacceptable.

For years it has been a broken, hopeless, wasteland for so many.

But for the first time in a long long time, I started to believe:

Change is coming.

And we are that change.

But we must get angry and we must use it well.

For most of us getting angry is the easy part, we have it in buckets.

It’s the “using it well” part that’s hard.

At least it was until I saw what was happening in that garden in Soho.

If you feel angry and can’t figure out where to place it here are two quick and effective things you can do right now that will lead to your lives getting better:

1/2) Sign the Petition

Your voice, face and likeness are currently being stolen by producers who want to sell them to Ai companies without your consent.

They are refusing to put any protections into your contracts.

You turn up on set, producers tell you you need to do a body scan, you can’t say no. The producers then sell that body scan – the way you look, the way you move to an Ai company to help train their ai avatars. A year later, you see someone who looks identical to you in an ai advert with no consent required on your part. That ai advert means you suddenly become known as the face of a brand you don’t want to be associated with. You start to lose jobs because of this. No consent required. Nothing you can do.

If that angers you, do something about it right now by signing this petition.

The more members that sign, the more the producers know that they could be dealing with a huge organised mass of people who won’t come to work tomorrow. Do not let them tell you not to get angry.

2/2) Share the petition

Once you’ve signed, one of the most effective things you can do is share the petition with others. Super easy – all you need to do is copy and paste the below message into a whatsapp of any pal you know who is an actor in the uk:

How many people you can share with before the end of today?

3/2 If you are not yet a member of Equity

I encourage you to sign up

If you can’t afford it right now – apply to the reduce pay here​

There is not a time when we need each other more than right now. Join us.

Remember:
We are much stronger together.

To paraphrase our (wildly charismatic) Equity president, Paul W. Fleming,

I left that garden in Soho with a renewed sense of hope and a fire in my belly. Finally I can direct my anger and frustrations towards actions that will actually change things for the better.

I was grateful to the members who made me feel welcome, I was grateful to the leadership who pointed me in the right direction, and I was grateful to my pal Gio for being my expert guide and encouraging me to get more involved.

These guys reminded me – there is a third option for that tilting firework – you can always strap it to your back and use it to rescue your friends from getting left behind.

Be angry.

Sign the petition.

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See you next week,

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Al x

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