The meeting Wednesday was interesting. Granted, I was exhausted because I had been at work since 9:30am and didn't leave the parking lot until 9:30pm. I think it was worth it nonetheless. I sat in on a Diversity and Affirmative Action Roundtable, hosted by SAG and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), to collect concerns, etc. when SAG and AFTRA go into contract renegotiations later this year. In the beginning, I sat at the sign-in table and checked SAG membership cards to insure the press didn't get through, and the members welcomed me to the guild. No super-huge names, but a couple who are, indeed, on my database list.
The meeting starts and the AFTRA sign-in lady--who, although very nice and motherly, did scare the crap out of me by telling me a story about how her 20 year old daughter got attacked at 8:30pm in Silverlake and how I should "not make myself a victim"--wants to leave at 8pm. You can't leave member information just laying unattended on the tables in front, so my supervisor told me to collect the sign-in sheets and come in to the meeting. The AFTRA lady asks if I would mind watching the sign-in tables until 8:30 (the discussion is set to go until 9pm) because she doesn't feel comfortable leaving the front unmanned. I politely say that, yes, I would mind. I am not on the clock. I do not have to attend this meeting. I stayed after work to attend this meeting, not work it. I thought about AJ, who reminds us we need to manage our supervisors and not let them take advantage of our intern status, and did not feel guilty. It was a personal victory.
Once in the actual meeting, I listened to the members discuss the variety of problems. The diverse "American scene" is still not portrayed in film and television. Minority groups, like people of color and people with disabilities, still cannot get work. How they want to collect statistics, but many refuse to self-identity because it limits their work. About how jobs should be based on who you can play, not what you are. Yet, in the same vein, they want descrip roles reserved for them first. They argue that Artie, on Glee, should have been cast as someone who actually uses a wheelchair. Glee was mentioned 17 thousand times. They were upset because Kevin McHale is winning awards for his performance, a job that could have (and in their minds, should have) gone to... well, not him.
But isn't it about who you can play, not what you are?
The SAG and AFTRA Staff tried to explain that the unions cannot boycott or push for the kind of action these members wanted to see because Glee's Artie is a union member and has a right to work just like they do. Members on their own can boycott; the union cannot. The union cannot favor some members over others.
I understand the precarious position of SAG. I understand their frustration with lack of jobs, lack of roles written to express the diversity of theAmerican scene. Especially in regards to people with disabilities. Color is wrapped up in politics of selling and appeal, but ability gets ignored so frequently. John Locke on Lost, although sometimes a wheelchair user, could not have been played by someone who actually uses a wheelchair because the magic island gave him the ability to walk again. And that writing makes some sense: a potentially-hostile tropical island isn't the best place for people with physical difficulties, you know, with all that sand.
But I couldn't help thinking--and perhaps this is a sign of what a horrible person I am, or just that I've been reading too much Ayn Rand--"what if, out of all the people the Glee Casting Directors auditioned for the role of Artie, Kevin McHale was the best? What if they did audition many actual wheelchair users but Kevin McHale played the part best? Isn't it about who he can play not what he is?"
They want their cake and to eat it too. They want descript roles to be reserved for them, but they want to play lots of other parts. As one member said, "you will never have a career playing the disabled character."
Ugh. I don't know. It's complicated.
What's not complicated: waiting in the Pacific Design Center Parking Lot until the drunkenness subsides so I can drive home. What fool told me I was capable of drinking the whole thing by myself? Haha I love you guys.
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