Irish actor walks out of his own film premiere to 'write picket signs'

CILLIAN Murphy led his co-stars, including Emily Blunt and Matt Damon, on a walk-out from the London premiere of Oppenheimer to “write their picket signs” ahead of the Sag-Aftra strike announcement on Thursday evening.

The premiere of Christopher Nolan’s historical epic was brought forward by an hour ahead of a Sag-Aftra press conference in Los Angeles, which later declared the US-based actors union had agreed to strike.

Speaking on the red carpet, the Irish actor told press: “I stand by my colleagues, that’s all I can say to you.”

The anticipated announcement cast a shadow over the London film premiere at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, with the film’s major stars including Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Rami Malek leaving before the screening of the film.

Speaking on stage ahead of the strike announcement, filmmaker Nolan said: “I have to acknowledge the work of our incredible cast, led by Cillian Murphy.

“The list is enormous — Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek and so many more. You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet.

“Unfortunately, they are off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of their union.”

Meanwhile British actress Pugh told PA that the cast felt lucky to have got to the Oppenheimer premiere before the strike was announced but also lucky to be standing in solidarity with their acting peers.

She said: “It’s been a really, really tense few days for a lot of people, not just actors but everybody in the industry who are going to be affected by this decision but affected by a decision that is necessary.

“Equally, premieres aren’t just for us, they are to honour a movie, they are to honour a crew that made them so we feel both lucky, that we got to squeeze this in, and also lucky that we get to stand by our peers in a decision that is made.

“We hope that something comes of it soon.”

The strike news comes after the US union and Hollywood studios failed to reach an agreement after more than four weeks of negotiations, with actors wanting better pay and increased safeguarding around AI rights among their demands.

Last month Sag-Aftra members voted overwhelmingly to authorise a strike if a new contract with major studios, streamers and production companies could not be reached.

Nearly 98% (97.91%) of the 65,000 members who cast votes were in favour, Sag-Aftra said.