Voices from the picket lines: Three writers on why they鈥檙e striking
| Los Angeles
Across Hollywood, the picket line for writers looks quite similar. Wearing blue Writers Guild of America T-shirts and carrying signs affixed to stakes, the strikers walk a circuit past the gates of each studio. Then they loop back in the opposite direction. At Fox Studios, one writer carries a sign that says, 鈥淚鈥檓 getting my 10,000 steps in.鈥澨�
To get to this point in their careers, these writers have also had to put in their 10,000 hours. It鈥檚 a profession that often entails late nights and forgoing weekends. The scribes say that studios and streaming services (dubbed 鈥渟treamers鈥�) often nickel and dime them to cut costs. On the picket line, as in their jobs, they are accustomed to perseverance.
The Monitor interviewed three of the people on strike 鈥� a newcomer, a mid-career writer, and a veteran 鈥� about their tribulations and triumphs in the industry.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onShould a picture be worth a thousand times more than the words? We interviewed three striking Hollywood writers 鈥� a newcomer, a mid-career writer, and a veteran 鈥� about their tribulations and triumphs.
The newcomer
Screenwriting is career 2.0 for . The young millennial, a first-generation American, graduated from New York University with majors in economics and broadcast journalism. Her first job was as a paralegal.听
鈥淚t took me a while but, like, I knew that my heart was in Hollywood,鈥� says Ms. Jahagirdar, who is marching outside Sony Studios while carrying a sign that reads, 鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna need a bigger offer!鈥�
She enrolled in an MFA screenwriting program at University of California, Los Angeles. After a stint in the script and continuity department on the reboot of听鈥淒ynasty,鈥澨齭he was hired听for the Disney sci-fi show听鈥淛ust Beyond,鈥� for which she was nominated for a WGA Award.听Then she was hired as the story editor in a 鈥渕ini room鈥� 鈥� which consists of a showrunner plus two or three writers 鈥� to develop an adaptation of Alka Joshi鈥檚 novel 鈥淭he Henna Artist.鈥� But Netflix decided against putting the series into production.听
鈥淲hen you work for 16 weeks, I mean out of a year, that鈥檚 not a lot of work,鈥� says Ms. Jahagirdar, raising her voice to be heard over the honks of cars showing support for the writers on strike. When 鈥測ou鈥檙e constantly hustling for that next job ... your mental energy is spent on like, 鈥楬ow am I going to pay the rent?鈥欌�澨�
When her savings began to dwindle, she started a part-time job on the听screenwriting faculty of Western Colorado University.听
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know anybody in this business when I started. And I want to give back,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut I genuinely don鈥檛 know if I can tell my students, 鈥楬ey, this is a great business to get into. If you can make it, if you can break in, it鈥檒l be great.鈥� I can鈥檛 see that anymore.鈥澨�
Ms. Jahagirdar also worked to adapt Colleen Houck鈥檚 YA series 鈥淭iger鈥檚 Curse鈥� for Netflix, where she has a script development deal under the streaming service鈥檚 for underrepresented writers. That project is also in limbo. Yet these setbacks haven鈥檛 extinguished her spark.
鈥淭here are these stories that we want to tell,鈥� says the writer. 鈥淭hese are lived experiences. We want to see them on the screen. We have observations we鈥檝e made about the world and we share them, whether it鈥檚 in a gritty drama or sci-fi fantasy. That鈥檚 in our heart.鈥澨�
The mid-career writer
When became a Hollywood screenwriter, she never imagined that she鈥檇 end up writing a song for Sting.听
Picketing outside Fox Studios as her floppy hat wilts under the late-afternoon sun, Ms. Newman reflects on her storied career. After earning a Radio, TV, and Film degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she returned to her hometown of Los Angeles.
鈥淚 got a writer鈥檚 assistant job because I was a fast typist, and then made friends from there, and wrote scripts and showed them to them,鈥� she recalls.听
Ms. Newman鈥檚 comedic sensibilities have been employed on series such as听鈥淭hat 鈥�70s Show鈥� and 鈥淗ow I Met Your Mother.鈥� While working on Hulu鈥檚听鈥淥nly Murders in the Building,鈥� she wrote a song for Sting, who played himself on the series. 鈥淚 felt comfortable doing it,鈥� she explains, because the lyrics were intentionally bad for comedic effect.听
鈥淚鈥檓 a TV writer because I don鈥檛 want to write alone in a dark room,鈥� says Ms. Newman, who penned a memoir in 2014 titled, 鈥淲hat I Was Doing While You Were Breeding.鈥� 鈥淚 love the camaraderie and the process that happens when you have lots of people coming together and one plus one equals three.鈥澨�
Ms. Newman is striking alongside fellow members of the Writers Guild of America because she objects to the trend of writers鈥� rooms getting smaller. As a cost-cutting move, some streaming services also lay off the writing staff once filming begins.听
鈥淚 had to really fight to keep one writer with me throughout production for my last show after seeing what had happened to showrunners on streamers who lost their writers鈥櫶齬ooms,鈥� says Ms. Newman. 鈥淭hen they had to shoot it by themselves and finish breaking stories by themselves and write the scripts by themselves.鈥澨�
Two days prior to the strike, Ms. Newman was in Argentina filming a TV adaptation of her travel adventure memoir. The showrunner worries what will happen to that dream project, which she鈥檚 unable to edit now that she鈥檚 on strike. But during the strike outside Fox, she鈥檚 reconnected with her friend and fellow writer Dave Caplan.
鈥淲e were just talking about how we worked on 鈥楾he Muppets!鈥� together for ABC,鈥� says Ms. Newman. 鈥淚 got to have Willie Nelson come and sing 鈥極n the Road Again鈥� with the Muppets and introduce my dad to his idol before he died. That was amazing.鈥�
The veteran
has co-written so many movies that when he鈥檚 asked to name some, he鈥檚 at a loss.听
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the dog movie where it鈥檚 reincarnated?鈥� asks Mr. Wolodarsky, who is marching outside Amazon鈥檚 studio in Culver City. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember the name of it. 鈥楢 Dog鈥檚 Journey,鈥� maybe.鈥澨�
He guessed correctly. The veteran co-writes mostly family-oriented movies with his wife, Maya Forbes. Their credits include 鈥淢onsters vs. Aliens,鈥� and 鈥淒iary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.鈥� More recently, the couple adapted and co-directed Ann Leary鈥檚 novel 鈥淭he Good House,鈥� which starred Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline.
This is Mr. Wolodarsky鈥檚 third strike during his 35-year membership in the Writers Guild of America. The sign he鈥檚 hoisting features a photo of Jerry Lewis from an even earlier strike in 1973. Tensions between studios and writers are long-standing, he says, but the situation is worse than ever for scribes.
鈥淲hen I came into the business in 1987, I earned a really good living,鈥� says the writer, who got his start on 鈥淭he Tracey Ullman Show鈥� and 鈥淭he Simpsons.鈥� 鈥淚 went from having no bank account to being able to buy a used car and rent an apartment with my girlfriend.鈥�
Glancing at the strikers walking two-by-two along the narrow sidewalk, Mr. Wolodarsky says very few of them are high earners. The strike isn鈥檛 a case of rich people fighting rich people, he adds.
鈥淎mazon has got a lot of money and Amazon could pay the writers a fair living, decent wage,鈥� says the writer.听
Asked about the financial pressure that studios and streaming services are under 鈥� last month Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video of its 7,000 employees 鈥� Mr. Wolodarsky responds, 鈥淔or the most part, middle-class workers have to pay for bad business decisions of huge corporations.鈥�
The writer says that he and his wife, who have a 14-year-old son, still try to create movies that captivate audiences amid a fragmented media environment where no one pays attention for more than 30 seconds.听
鈥淭o me, a great movie is magic in the way that a great novel or a great painting is,鈥� says Mr. Wolodarsky. 鈥淚 still believe in it. And I鈥檓 going to keep doing it till I get kicked out.鈥�
