The historic Hollywood actors’ strike of 2023 was never a total blackout. While the majority of stars were stuck twiddling thumbs at their mansions, there were waivers given to some films to either progress with production or carry on with promotion. Certain rules allowed for certain things such as an actor who is also a director showing up at a premiere or an actor hosting Saturday Night Live due to a difference in the contract involved. But that latter magic hall pass came with a key caveat: said actor could not hawk the film or show that got them the gig in the first place.
Just days before last week’s SNL host Timothée Chalamet took to the stage, a deal was finally struck after 118 days of picketing and so the actor became one of the first notable stars to double up as salesman once again. Allowed to openly highlight his starring role in this December’s Wonka, Chalamet addressed the unshackling in his monologue, gleefully tweaking the lyrics to Pure Imagination: “Come with me and you’ll be in a world of shameless self-promotion.” He wasn’t the only one luring us back there as the weekend saw a quick flurry of social media posts, public appearances and interview opportunities, actors desperately trying to make up for lost time.
It may have been too little too late for the superhero misadventure The Marvels, which started previews the night before the end was made official. A sudden rush of star-led publicity, including Brie Larson appearing on The Tonight Show, Iman Vellani popping up at a special LA screening and a smattering of social media posts, didn’t seem to boost audience interest, with the film scoring the lowest ever MCU opening of just $47m (over $100m down from predecessor Captain Marvel). General Marvel fatigue was an undoubtable key driver here as well (earlier this year Ant-Man 3 was also a critical and commercial disappointment) but the somewhat confusing messaging of the trailer, bringing together disparate characters from Marvel films and shows, might have benefited from the combined charm of Oscar-winner Larson, Ms Marvel star Vellani and Wandavision’s Teyonah Parris explaining via a long tail of interviews in the lead-up. Given that Marvel films tend to live or die on the opening weekend, a second boost of PR might not make much of a difference at this stage.
Elsewhere, fellow Marvel star Tom Hiddleston was also back on the circuit for the finale of Loki, appearing on The Tonight Show alongside Larson and helping to spark a host of excitable headlines after talking about Robert Downey Jr’s rumoured return to the role of Iron Man (what is death in the multiverse anyway?). The two were last-minute additions on Friday, providing a sudden, much-needed boost of star power, because since the writers’ strike ended in September, late-night shows were starting to struggle in the search for alternative solutions. They weren’t exactly star-less, with waivers allowing Priscilla’s Jacob Elordi and What Happens Later’s Meg Ryan on and other non-Sag-affiliated pursuits freeing up actors such as Morgan Freeman and Allison Williams, but interviews were often restrictive and the well was starting to run dry. This week, the floodgates are well and truly open, with stars such as Ariana DeBose, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Taika Waititi and Eve Hewson taking advantage of some major exposure.
Hewson’s appearance, to promote her lead role in Apple’s musical drama Flora and Son, will be one of many in the upcoming weeks that serves as after-the-fact publicity (the film was released on the streamer back in September). Some of the belated promo has been a little redundant at this stage even if ultimately understandable – one of the young stars of the underperforming horror sequel The Exorcist: Believer sharing a month-old image of her next to a billboard – but other bites, such as Hewson’s interview also act as important For Your Consideration activity. Oscar nominations might not be out until January but the journey there typically starts months prior during fall festival season, hit hard this year by big contenders such as Bradley Cooper, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo unable to glide from glitzy premiere to press junket to audience Q&A to all of the other many, many stops that are included on the campaign trail at both LA and NY industry events as well as smaller boutique-y festivals across the country.
Films such as Past Lives, Ferrari and Anatomy of a Fall had been allowed to start campaigns earlier with stars like Greta Lee and Adam Driver taking part in FYC events and festival tributes as the films came from independent distributors. But bigger films had been handicapped. So almost immediately after the strike ended, a flurry of events were fixed, emails were sent and interviews were arranged. “We have so many ideas we want to implement, but we need our actors to execute them,” a senior awards publicist said to Variety. “Now, we’re ready to go to work.”
The stars of Alexander Payne’s hotly tipped comedy drama The Holdovers (one of the fall festival’s best-reviewed films) are cropping up at “mix and mingle” events as well as taking part in a more formal junket this week. The film is performing well already in bigger cities before it rolls out wide this weekend heading into Thanksgiving and is the kind of crowd-pleaser that will benefit from getting its three, incredibly effective, performers front and centre. Star Da’Vine Joy Randolph, hot favourite to win best supporting actress for her performance, was finally allowed to promote the film with an Instagram share of the trailer over the weekend. A studio exec told the Hollywood Reporter last week: “We are telling talent on Thursday to post, post, post!”
Barry Keoghan was a last-minute addition to a special Thursday night screening of his 00s-set thriller Saltburn in New York, alongside writer-director Emerald Fennell (“It’s just so exciting to now have all the actors back,” she said on the red carpet. “I’m just looking forward to seeing everyone honestly”. The actor, coming off his first Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, is one of the film’s many stars who has now started a social media blitz before the film is released this week (Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant and Jacob Elordi have all been enthusiastically posting since the strike ended) and the weekend saw a starry press day arranged for the upcoming week. While the film is unlikely to be an awards contender (the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “entertaining enough” in a so-so three star review), ensuring its camera-friendly cast spread the word will be a key to standing out in a busy Thanksgiving box office scrum. Similarly, Apple’s Napoleon, released theatrically with Sony, is rumoured to be cranking up activity as fast as possible with a Parisian premiere, stars allegedly attending, planned for Tuesday. The weekend premiere of Netflix’s sixth season of The Crown also allowed for stars Elizabeth Debicki and Jonathan Pryce to walk the red carpet alongside the streamer’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who helped broker the deal between Sag-Aftra and AMPTP.
Earlier releases such as Oppenheimer, Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon had been relying on their directors to push the films from the box office into the awards race but expect all three campaigns to now elevate contenders such as Cillian Murphy, Ryan Gosling and Lily Gladstone. The latter, competing in a stacked best actress category, broke her forced social media silence on Martin Scorsese’s fact-based drama over the weekend by warning Native viewers to be careful of the film’s violent content and aware of the generational grief they may encounter. Rumours suggest she will make an appearance at a DGA screening of the film in New York this week.
The end has also allowed for deals to be made, or at least announced given that many were perhaps pre-planned for release during the strike. Today saw Netflix reveal that Antoine Fuqua would be re-teaming with his Training Day and Equalizer star Denzel Washington for an action epic about the warrior Hannibal. Today’s launch of the first trailer for yet another Garfield movie, this time animated, also freed up voice star Chris Pratt to share it with his 45.5 million followers, a not-to-be-sniffed at boost to the start of the film’s marketing push. The weekend also saw Millie Bobby Brown share the trailer for the Netflix adventure Damsel to her 63.5 million followers. Two stars not sharing a trailer for their new movie once the rules allowed were Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, whose romcom Anyone But You is out this December. The first teaser had been received with a bit of a shrug showing very little rom or com and with the strike now over, the pair immediately headed to Australia for some incredibly last-minute reshoots, a rather worrying sign (during the strike the film had also been pushed back by a week).
Actors frantically playing catch-up will be continuing to do so until the end of the year, much to the relief of those booking interviews, pushing the balance of power slightly in the opposite direction for once as publicists jostle for limited space for their clients, hoping to boost box office and/or gain awards traction. Some films, such as Dune 2 and Challengers, might have already moved when the strike was announced but for the new releases that stayed firm, such as Aquaman 2 and The Color Purple, will now be competing with an almighty backlog. Stars might have been quiet for a moment but now they’re set to be louder than ever before, pitching us hard for the foreseeable future, a reminder for all in clearer terms than ever before that show business is far more business than show.
