Strike Faces: The Unique Individuals I’ll Never Forget From the WGA and SAG-AFTRA Picket Lines at Netflix Over the Past Six Months
I honestly had no idea that last Friday would be the last time I’d walk the picket line at the Netflix offices on Sunset Blvd. There were rumblings, sure, that things were happening and yada yada yada, but at that point, no one was quite sure what to believe. But now, it’s actually over (barring any unforeseen drama with the ratification), and it’s almost hard to believe.
I’m an entertainment journalist by trade (Currently: Daily Mail; Previously: MovieWeb, Screen Rant, IGN), but every Friday late-morning-to-mid-afternoon-ish from May 5 through November 2 (save for two Fridays when I was traveling), I walked the picket line as an amateur/unsold/unrepped screenwriter, with my friend Toby, and it was an experience I’ll never forget. Now that it’s over, I figured I might as well exorcise these thoughts and memories from my head and put them onto digital paper.
I don’t think anyone realized how long it would take. There was always the distinct possibility that the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) could ALL go on strike together, but those who have been around long enough knew that was just a double-rainbow unicorn of a pipe dream.
The DGA has only been on strike once in 1987… and it lasted just three hours and five minutes — literally less than Killers of the Flower Moon’s runtime — on the East Coast, and apparently somewhere between five minutes and 12 minutes on the West coast. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA hadn’t struck together since 1960 when future President Ronald Reagan was the SAG President, so many thought that to be a pipe dream as well, but sometimes, even pipe dreams come true.
I always felt guilty for not walking more. I have some amazing writer friends like Robin Fusco, Dana Braziel-Solovy and James Alexander who were quite literally on the lines in L.A. every day, plus my friend Brenden Gallagher who was a wonderful strike captain at Netflix, and one of my Twitter favorites, Jamie Harris, who I finally got to meet in person on the line and she’s great! There were a few in New York as well like Avishai Weinberger who were a constant presence on the East Coast lines. I always did — and still do — admire their tenacity and determination to be there as much as they possibly could, going even further beyond their presence by making and handing out buttons to fellow strikers. There were other strike heroes I never met but heard about through Twitter like Jess Morse, who raised a whopping $35K to disperse fresh Costco pizzas to picket lines.
There were also, of course, famous strike heroes like Drew Carey, who reportedly spent over $500,000 to pay for free meals for striking actors and writers at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and Swingers diner in the Fairfax district, Seth McFarlane who donated $6 million to the Entertainment Community Fund, which helped strike-impacted workers, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, whose unspecified seven-figure donation to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation kicking off what would be over $15 million in donations from other A-listers like George Clooney and Meryl Streep.
Over the past six months, there were a number of Netflix regulars that I saw, most of them every single time I was there, so I thought I’d write about them, and some of the other unique things and people I saw over the past six months… starting with literally one of the first people I saw on my first day of the WGA picket: Shawn Ryan, the creator of my favorite show of all-time: The Shield.
SHAWN RYAN
The Shield was the show that got me back into television again. Most credit HBO’s The Sopranos as the start of television’s second Golden Age, but The Shield was the first to show that you can create quality television on a basic cable budget. Michael Chiklis was the first actor ever to win Best Actor in a Drama Series for a basic cable show, and it paved the way for FX to become a TV powerhouse, and for other unlikely networks like AMC to greenlight their first two original drama shows: Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
I was fully enthralled by The Shield from the pilot, and while others moved on to the glut of quality programming that The Shield helped usher in, I couldn’t get enough of the show, and I still think the finale is one of the best of all-time. I was fortunate enough to interview Shawn at my old gig MovieWeb back in 2009 and I’ve been following his work ever since from the brilliant but short-lived Terriers and Last Resort to his latest series, Netflix’s amazing The Night Agent.
I live within walking distance of the Netflix facility on Sunset, and I was quite stunned how huge the crowd was. While I was making my way to the tent to sign in, I realized I was walking behind Shawn and his wife Cathy, who marveled at the amazing gesture of all the late-night hosts to pay for a free food truck for the whole day. After signing in and getting a sign, I realized I was standing next to him again at an intersection when I decided to introduce myself.
He couldn’t have been nicer, though he fully admitted he’d rather be writing the second season of The Night Agent, but he was there to show his solidarity with his union. I shook his hand and mentioned that I’m an entertainment journalist and I interviewed him once many years ago at my old job, but I’m also a screenwriter as well. He smiled and said, “Well, we’re all in it together now.”
Over the next few weeks and months, I’d see him there randomly, but I still think it’s amazing that the first guy I recognized on my first day on the picket line was one of my writing heroes, and he was great.
OTHER CELEBS
Anyone who followed the strikes on social media in any way knows how much of a force on the lines that Adam Ruins Everything star Adam Connover was, and I saw him frequently on the lines. He was always talking with someone or making one of his many highly-informative strike videos, so I never got to say hello, but his presence was always appreciated.
Others I saw walking the line was Tom Ellis (Lucifer), Paul Scheer (The League), Noah Wylie (Falling Skies), Jason Ritter (Parenthood) and Allison Tolman (Fargo and the brilliant but underseen Downward Dog) and many others I’ve since forgotten about, which is kind of amazing in and of itself. One of the big negative things I always saw floating around social media was how no one was there to be there in solidarity with the unions, but that they were really there for networking. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Granted, I wasn’t there every day but this was never something I saw on the days I was there, not even once.
There were also a slew of pro writers who walked the line at Netflix like Don Roos (Single White Female, The Opposite of Sex), Lila Byock (Watchmen) and likely so many others I didn’t recognize and/or catch their nametags. It was amazing.
I never knew what famous faces I’d see on any given day at Netflix… but there were a few non-famous faces I saw literally every time, and I’ll likely never forget. I never got any of their names, so if by reading below you recognize someone, please reach out.
HUGE PENCIL GUY
I saw this tall and incredibly affable Black man (late 40s/early 50s) walking the line every Friday, and for the first several months, he was always carrying a rather thick oversized wooden pencil, probably a foot or so long. He even drew a lot of the signs used at Netflix, as he pointed out to us one day that he had a tiny wooden pencil in the corner of his signs. I was only there every Friday, but as far as I knew, dude was there every day, chanting, dancing along to whatever was playing at the makeshift DJ booth at the corner of Sunset and Van Ness. I have no idea if he was a writer or not, but I always cracked a smile when I saw him.
BASKETBALL GUY
This tall and lanky older white man (Late 50s? Early 60s?) was also there every day I was at Netflix, but I don’t think I ever saw him carrying a sign. The one thing he did always carry was a basketball. There are some courts just about a block south of Netflix on Van Ness, but while he did have a ball every day… I never even saw him dribble with it, never really saw him chant, or try to goad Sunset drivers into honking or any of the things people usually did on the line. But he was always there, always, and I appreciated that.
SUPER TAN SLEEVELESS SHIRT BENCH GUY
There is a stop for the 2 bus on Sunset and Van Ness, and like most (but sadly not all) bus stops, there is a green metal bench accompanying it. That green bench became the strike throne for this guy (late 50s? early 60s?) who was always in a sleeveless shirt and shorts, showing off an impressive (if slightly leathery…) tan that he had clearly been cultivating for years. He looked like your stereotypical Venice/Santa Monica beach bum, but he was in Hollywood sitting on that goddamn bench every Friday. He never carried a sign, or even really marched that I can remember, but every time you approached that corner he was waiting with a smile.
LONG HAIRED SUPER FASHIONABLE SILENT SOLO GUY
I didn’t see this guy every Friday, but I saw him enough, always walking the line solo, without a sign or without talking to anyone, that I could tell. The best way of describing this guy was to say that he looked like he came out of Zoolander. He had an air of fashion sense unlike anyone there and had long straight hair. He carried himself in a way that no one else did, and every time I saw him I was so curious as to who he was, what he did and why he was there.
THE UNSEEN SIGN-MAKERS
For those who never got to walk a picket line during the strike, they encouraged you to sign in and leave your email at these tents, where you can also drop off snacks and whatnot. After signing in, there is a slew of strike signs leaning against the fence, and it was always a process to try and find the most fun or clever sign that we could. We always got there around 10:45 AM or 11 AM so most of the good ones were already taken, but I was privileged enough to walk holding some absolute gems. These two below are probably my favorites, and the one with the huge block of text is randomly a lengthy monologue by Christopher Guest in Waiting For Guffman…super shout-out to whoever took the time to write that whole thing out!
I know there are others I’m gonna remember after posting this, but these were the constants or at least the ones I saw the most. I’ve walked down that street dozens, if not hundreds of times before. The corner of Sunset and Van Ness is on the way to our local Target, which I would walk to frequently for various wares, and just a block or so east is an Arby’s where Toby and I would get lunch after picketing… and where Patton Oswalt famously posed at one of the outdoor picnic tables with his Emmy at 3 AM in 2016.
I’d always hope, one day, that I’d get to be in that Netflix building, signing a contract or pitching something to Netflix execs. Whether or not that actually happens, now when I walk down that street there’s likely no chance I’ll think about that.
I’ll think about the massive swath of humanity marching, chanting, fighting for the future of a cruel and unusual industry, whose executives would apparently literally see writers lose their apartments and houses over shelling out some much-deserved dough. I’ll think about shaking Shawn Ryan’s hand. I’ll think about Huge Pencil Guy and his unwavering enthusiasm. I’ll wonder if Basketball Guy is down the street draining J’s. I’ll picture Super Tan Sleeveless Shirt Bench Guy smiling at me from his throne, while also wondering who the fuck Long Haired Super Fashionable Silent Solo Guy really is.
I’ll smile and think about the creative signs I got to carry, and imagine Brenden or any of the amazing other strike captains are down the street, waiting for me to tap their sign, cheering me on for a great lap, encouraging me to keep going, to keep creating… and after all this… how can I not?