Sylvester Stallone has never been afraid of airing his opinions in public and his latest interview has seen the veteran actor throwing his weight behind the WGA writer’s strike. Stallone is currently appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on the big screen as well as his own reality TV show and in his first major TV role in Tulsa King on Paramount+. The latter of these had felt the impact of the strike action. However, Stallone believes that there is certainly a justified reason for the action being taken, as he feels writers are very “underappreciated” in the industry.
Speaking with Newsweek, Stallone, who has writing many screenplays over the last five decades, was asked whether the strike action is impacting his work right now. He responded:
“It’s definitely affecting work because we can’t move forward with a lot of projects, especially Tulsa King, but I think it’s changed so much that the writers do have a serious gripe […]. They’re in a grievance that it’s changed. There’s not enough work to keep all these writers going. And then they’re living in under this cloud of AI [artificial intelligence]. It’s a very terrifying time to be a writer. They work on, like, for our show [Tulsa King], eight episodes, and then you’re done, and that’s it. Like, ‘What do I live on for the rest of the year?’ sort of a thing. So I understand their plight.Writing, I’ve done all the different aspects of filmmaking. I’ve written 40 screenplays that it’s, it’s so laborious and so unheralded. It’s not appreciated. The audience doesn’t get it. That’s the hardest part of the process. Without that, there’s nothing. That’s what Hollywood is built on, ‘the word.’ And yet they’re not very appreciated.”
Tulsa King Has Joined Many TV Shows Hit By the Writer’s Strike
Stallone is certainly not alone in being stuck waiting for the WGA’s strike to be resolved, as Tulsa King has joined an ever-growing list of TV shows and movies that have been indefinitely halted by the writer’s strike. While there are some productions that have continued filming without their showrunners, these have been hit by picket lines outside their shooting locations and actors refusing to cross picket lines in support for the cause.
In the last week, a number of actors have been seen joining the protests, such as Bob Odenkirk, and many others have added their vocal support to the demands of writers. Having just cleared the backlogs caused by the Covid pandemic, Hollywood is not heading into another unsettled time. Currently, a lot of big shows such as Stranger Things, Billions and a new Game of Thrones spin-off have all been put on pause and will not start up again until the dispute is over. There is no indication yet of exactly when that will happen, but it doesn’t seem likely to be something that is over in a few days.
For Sylvester Stallone, although Tulsa King season two may be off the cards for now, he is currently promoting his new reality show, The Family Stallone, which premieres on Paramount+ on May 17.