Maine actors say strike is about getting streaming services to play fair

For Jeff Davis of Standish, the current actors’ strike is about fairness.

As a working film and TV actor for some 30 years, Davis says he’s seen the amount of money he makes from residuals – the payments actors traditionally get each time a TV episode airs – shrink drastically as streaming services like Netflix and Hulu bring in more and more money each year.

Streaming services for years have argued that because their medium and technology was still developing, they couldn’t agree to a per episode model of payment, like broadcast networks have long used. Davis says he still gets substantial residuals for playing an FBI agent on one episode of the CBS show “The Mentalist” in 2014, while streaming shows he’s been in – including a recent episode of “13 Reasons Why” on Netflix – can run continuously for months without him seeing much of a paycheck.

“Some years, you’re not making much, but you count on your residuals to carry you through” said Davis, 59, a Buxton native who lived and worked Los Angeles for more than 30 years before recently moving back to Maine. “If they’re going to use work we’ve been in over and over, then they have to pay us more up front. We have to get more of a fair share of what they’re making.”

Actor Matthew Delamater, at home in Bridgton, is a Screen Actors Guild member and supports the current strike. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Davis is among several Mainers who are part of the current actors’ strike, as members of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The strike began July 14, about two months after the Writers Guild of America went on strike, essentially shutting down film and TV production. The five Maine actors who spoke to the Portland Press Herald for this story say they can probably weather the strike financially, depending on the length, with the help of other jobs or income, or because of residuals from past work.

Davis, who is billed in screen credits as Jf Davis, said he supplemented his acting income by working as a handyman during his years living in Los Angeles. He said, over the years, he’s probably lost $40,000 to $50,000 in potential residuals by appearing in shows that are streaming or on certain cable channels, instead of airing on broadcast networks.

SAG-AFTRA leadership has said the main issues behind the strike are actor compensation and the future use of artificial intelligence, specifically using an actor’s performance and likeness to create other characters on film for years to come, without being paid for that future use.

“The AI piece is very scary, it could eliminate so many jobs for background actors. And once they get your likeness on film, they would own it forever,” said Matthew Delamater, 42, of Bridgton, who had a featured role in the Ben Affleck film “The Tender Bar” in 2021 and will be in the next season of the streaming show “Julia” on Max.

Davis says he’ll “be OK” not acting for a while, as he recently sold his longtime home in Los Angeles to move to Standish and has money to pay his bills. Delamater has a full-time job as director of finance for Maine-based Oxbow Brewing Co. for income and works mostly from home.

Veteran Hollywood actors Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke moved to Greater Portland from Los Angeles about five years ago to raise their children and also own the Cornish Inn. Berkeley, 67, said that he and Clarke have learned to “get by” during periods where they aren’t working, and the strike is one of those.

Berkeley’s 40-plus-year career includes the films “A Few Good Men” and “Apollo 13” and appearances in many TV series, including “The Walking Dead,” “Law & Order” and “CSI.” Clarke’s many credits include the TV series “Bosch,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “24.” The pair have also been involved in a group called Picture Maine, which is working to bring more film and TV production to the state.

Veteran actor Xander Berkeley in Portland’s Old Port last fall. He says the actor’s union needs to take a strong stand to stop Hollywood studios from exploiting actors’ likenesses with AI. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Greg Finley, a Scarborough native who has been acting in films and on TV for more than 15 years and now lives in Florida, said residuals from his days as a regular on several TV shows helps him “pay the mortgage but sometimes not much more” most months. He was a featured cast member on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” on the ABC Family Channel and has also had regular or recurring roles in “The Flash,” and “iZombie,” both on the CW Network. Finley also starred in the indie film “Downeast,” which was filmed in Portland in 2020.

Delamater said most actors – those who aren’t TV series stars or regulars – struggle to find work and, when they do, work very irregularly. So having security and a fair share of the money being made from their work is very important. He hopes viewers keep that in mind when they read about the actors’ strike or complain about their favorite shows being on hiatus.

“I feel like people don’t think of actors as being regular people, that they’re all famous and successful,” Delamater said. “But it’s some of the hardest work I’ve ever done. You spend long days away from your family, and you don’t know when you’ll work again. Given how much people love content, especially since the pandemic, it’s crazy we don’t value the people making the content.”

Being on strike now not only means that union actors can’t work, but they can’t look for work or go to auditions. They also can’t promote movies they are in that are opening during the strike. Finley plays a gangster’s henchman in the movie “Inside Man,” starring Emile Hirsch and Lucy Hale, that’s slated to open in theaters Aug. 11. But he can’t do interviews to promote it or go to events for it.

Scarborough native Greg Finley has had featured roles in several TV shows and made the movie “Downeast” in Portland in 2020. Photo by Jasper Lowe

Clarke and Berkeley were in a Maine-made movie called “Heightened” that played at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville in early July. Because they wanted to support the strike, the two did not appear at the festival’s screening of the movie. Instead, they sent their daughters.

Berkeley said the actors should have probably gone on strike a long time ago, as early as 2008, when issues over residuals, streaming and other platforms were surfacing.

“We didn’t strike then when we probably should have, and now we’re paying the price. They have made the argument for years that they were trying to figure out how to monetize streaming services. Well, they’ve figured it out,” said Berkeley.

Finley, 38, says he wants a fairer deal on residuals from streaming services and, with that, a more predictable income. He said he gets residuals from being on network shows, like a recent episode of “NCIS: Hawaii” on CBS, which are based on the show’s ratings and how often an episode airs. But the streaming services contracts don’t include ratings and allow a show to be aired for a certain period of time without residuals being paid.

“These streaming services have made so much money, especially during and since COVID,” said Finely. “What they’re making compared to what everyone else (who contributes to TV and film production) is making, it’s just not fair.”