00:00How often do you trip up calling it the SAG Awards rather than the Actor Awards?
00:05I have been really working on that.
00:07So far today, I have not messed up yet, but it's early.
00:11It's still early.
00:12And maybe, you know, the training from going through the SAG and AFTRA merger
00:16has helped me prepare for mentally dealing with name changes.
00:20But in actuality, I mean, I think it is an important step for the show.
00:24And so I don't think we begrudge anybody a slip up.
00:28You know what I mean?
00:28It takes time to get used to it.
00:30Well, we've been in negotiations since February 7th.
00:32So we're in the middle of the first phase of that.
00:35It's heated bargaining.
00:37And I really can't talk about what the issues are specifically.
00:40But I would just say you can always count on SAG-AFTRA to be looking for what are the most
00:44important things
00:46affecting the lives of SAG-AFTRA members and to make that our priority.
00:49And everything in our negotiations comes from the grassroots membership.
00:53We had over 60 meetings with thousands of members around the country telling us what was important to them.
00:58So that's where all of that comes from.
01:00That's a lot of emails.
01:01That is a lot of emails.
01:02It is hundreds of hours.
01:04But it's for a good reason.
01:05We want to make sure that we're all aligned, we're unified, and we are.
01:10And let's talk about the big merger.
01:12What are your thoughts when you first heard Paramount got the deal?
01:16I mean, there's so much news this week that is shocking and surprising.
01:20From our point of view, we've been carefully analyzing both possibilities.
01:24Or, you know, the possibility it could be Netflix, it could be Paramount.
01:27And we haven't come out with any position on this yet.
01:30And I think we're still really considering what the implications are for the industry.
01:34So it's a moment of real contemplation and consideration about the future of what is an incredibly important legacy studio.
01:42And we all want to see it succeed.
01:44What kind of conversations do you have with each individual studio?
01:47Does it go to that?
01:48Or right now, is it more of an internal?
01:50Well, I mean, by negotiations?
01:52In terms of the merger.
01:53We've spoke with the heads of both well in advance of the events of the last week and recently.
02:01And, you know, I think they are always wanting to convey to the community that they're going to make commitments
02:09about what's going to happen
02:10and how this is going to work in a positive way for the industry.
02:14That's something we're very closely scrutinizing.
02:16And that'll be a key factor in how we decide to weigh in, if at all, on this.
02:23How worried are you about people losing jobs?
02:25Because any consolidation, that happens.
02:28Very worried about that.
02:29I mean, that is one of the primary concerns is, you know, what is going to happen with the level
02:34of production.
02:34We want to see production going up, not down.
02:37We're working really hard to accomplish that in a lot of ways.
02:40And so anything that would bring production levels down or cost jobs is something we are not excited about, obviously,
02:46and something we'd want to see corrected.
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