Stephen Amell from Arrow and Heels tries to walk back comments about strikes
Amell explains that he understands why the strike is happening "from an intellectual perspective"
Aux News Stephen Amell
Yesterday, a clip began to spread online of Arrow and Heels star Stephen Amell being asked about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike while at a convention, with Amell claiming that he supports his union but that he does not support the idea of striking—calling it “myopic” and a “reductive negotiating tactic.” The comment has generated a lot of unsurprising backlash, with even some actors from The CW’s Arrowverse criticizing Amell, and the backlash has now spread wide enough that the actor has felt the need to try and clarify what he said about the strike.
In a lengthy Instagram post (written out in the comments, so it’s a little hard to track all of it), Amell suggested that his comments were misunderstood or “unintentionally misrepresented” and taken out of context, so he basically broke down every line of what he said at the convention to try and walk back the anti-strike impression that he initially gave. The basic takeaway from all of it, though, is that when he said “I do not support striking, I don’t,” what he meant was that he doesn’t like the idea of striking but, “we have to do what we have to do,” and that when he said strikes are “a reductive negotiating tactic,” what he meant was that it’s “emotionally frustrating” to be on strike even if he understands why SAG-AFTRA is doing it “from an intellectual perspective.”
Amell also addressed the fact that he plugged Heels during the convention appearance, which he’s not supposed to be doing as per SAG-AFTRA’s strike rules, saying that he has “no clue” what he was trying to say but that it was “perhaps” meant to just be a “shoutout to our crew and cast” who worked so hard on the show. He ended his post by saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and by insisting that he stands with SAG-AFTRA, jokingly requesting that nobody “whip any hard fruit” when (he said “when”) they see him on a picket line.
Still, while a number of his followers have been supportive of his right to have an opinion, others have pointed out that he has been regularly promoting Heels on his Instagram, including in a since-deleted video where he talked about how proud he was to work on some unnamed thing while cheekily sliding the camera over to show a Heels billboard behind him—seemingly flouting the strike rules.
The A.V. Club has reached out to a representative for Amell for any further comments, but we have not heard back.
34 Comments
Not like any of the folks on shows he’s on will ever forget it.
His Arrow work is probably his best work especially season 1-3.
I think he just isn’t a fan of striking which I get. Striking is a labor tactic but’s it’s also not the only one. Still Just tense times all around because of the strikes.
What you know about labor negotiations wouldn’t fill a postcard.
I don’t know how acting and writing strikes work I am not in those areas of work. I am in a union job and I know that we have used other labor negotiation tactics. I assume Actors and writers must have other options than a strike. That was it.
Of course! The other options… genius.
The impression that Amell gave – and unfortunately a potential impression that could be read from your post – is that in his world the strike happened without any other attempts at resolution.I’m glad you had more positive outcomes from your union’s bargaining. In these cases, the bargaining broke down. Consider that just one of the sticking points – streaming revenues – is currently at a state where one side (the studios) controls the entirety of information used in payments and negotiations and refuses to cede any level of transparency. You’re talking about one side quite literally refusing to even allow the people being paid off of their work to know whether or not they’re being paid what they’re legally owed.
Add to that the response they gave when both unions *correctly* foresaw how studios/streamers are revving up efforts to entirely replace them with AI.AMPTP: Oh, AI? Sure, we’ll set up a conversation down the road.Unions: Nah, dog. We want something in writing. Like fucking now. This contract.AMPTP: ……Naaaah. Chill out, fellas! We’ll hang, we’ll have a jam sesh in like two years, yeah? Look, the growing majority of us are being swallowed up by tech companies who already have a head start on AI but it’s all good, bruh. Don’t worry about it! We’ll call you!
Exactly. Streaming “Black Widow” simultaneously with its theatrical release, knowing this would dilute whatever residuals ScarJo was owed from the box office receipts AND that her current contract didn’t give her a cut of the streaming revenue was, perhaps, a litmus test to see how far the execs can go to undercut labor.
Right, I forgot about that. And meanwhile they showed what her, a longtime employee, was worth relative to others like say Dwayne Johnson when they reworked his contract in advance to compensate him for that but not her.
what a schmuck
He didn’t get his job for his brains.
Seriously. He has a high school diploma, and he’s trying to lecture the rest of us on “intellect.” He has gotten all of his job offers by being a hot guy who goes to the gym a lot. I couldn’t care less what he thinks about politics, law, policy, rulemaking, regulations, etc.
you might call it… a heel turn.(•_•)
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I guess he is a chractor actor
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!
Apparently he thinks the only good way to make your views heard is to never do anything that makes people uncomfortable in any way.
He’s Canadian, so that tracks. Soory
You mean “never do anything that HURTS HIS OWN BANK ACCOUNT.” In other words, “I got mine, so find another way to get yours that won’t affect me still getting mine.”
Who? From what and what?
Bosses want as much labor from their workers for as little compensation as possible, while workers want as much compensation from their bosses for as little labor as possible. The power struggle goes on and on and on.Let em eat each other. The world already has more entertainment content than anyone could consume in a lifetime.
HE HAS FAILED THIS PROFESSION.
The guy shooting fake arrows on a CW show is talking about “intellectual perspectives”. Oh lordy, my pearls are firmly clutched.
oh god, I wonder if he is one of those incredibly problematic celbrities that just has an amazing PR team that keeps him quiet
Yeah, Gizmodo posted the full statement. https://gizmodo.com/stephen-amell-strike-wga-sag-arrow-unions-galaxycon-1850695812It’s a tricky situation. On the one hand, when he made his initial comments, those closest to him knew what he was trying to say. Those that were in his social circle could personally contact him to clarify what he said. But everyone else, it can be easily interpreted one way.It sounds like he was stating he will do what he is obligated to do, he will support it, but don’t ask him to like it. I think most in the strike also feel the same, they just also don’t have the financial security as some others such as he in the strike. That’s one of the reasons they’re doing the strike. They’re not striking to keep Tom Cruise or Amell or Brad Pitt to work/promote their product. Without those financial securities and support systems, they have so much more to lose to try to gain some consistent financial security. So he’s free to say what he feels. And people are free to react negatively to it. Under these circumstances and in today’s day and age with social media, if you’re going to post thoughts on a sensitive topic and you do care how people interpret your words, you need to filter your words and choose what you say carefully.
If the basis of knowing what he actually meant is based either on prior knowledge through being a friend or acquaintance of his or clarifying statements are needed, then you done fucked up. Actors of all people should know how optics and first impressions work.
You would think, but actors, politicians, and just people in general, straight up fuck up with what they post. Many don’t care how people react or if they misunderstood. Some react with a quick sorry and deletion. Some laugh about it and troll the people who react negatively. In his case, he went through a lot of trying to explain in great detail on his original comments. Like a lawyer trying to close up any loopholes or anything taken out of context.It kind of reminds me of an episode of the X-Files. When Mulder discovered a genie in a rug. He wished for peace on earth. And that turned out bad, so he specifically typed up about a dozen pages to cover every angle explaining what he means when he said peace on Earth. That way the Genie would not misunderstand, misinterpret, or take anything out of context to the choice of words, to the tone of his voice, and to the emotional subtext from which the statement he made.Like I said, it seems if you are going to voice out something on social media but you truly do care how people react, yeah you need to make a 12 page document. Clarification for those with different views, experiences, status, and different culture so as not to be guilty in the court of social media opinion.
I think this is trying too hard to intellectualize a problem that people only have because they don’t care enough to think things through or pay proper attention to the words they use. It’s actually very easy to describe the bad parts of a strike while not criticising the tactic as “myopic” or “reductive”, two descriptors that push past wrong into virtual nonsense. Look, here’s Danny Trejo describing his feeling about the strike:Even if it’s not a personal issue, anyone who knows anything about striking and the history thereof should be able to rattle off something boilerplate: “Striking is a bad tactic that hurts everyone involved. People want to work, and they need to work. But the larger situation is so terrible that a bad tactic is now the only effective means to a good solution.”
It’s true that people speaking off the cuff about things they don’t know about often get caught in the court of public opinion when they say something dumb or wrong, especially on the Internet, and especially famous people. But maybe we shouldn’t encourage people to speak off the cuff so much, and Stephen Amell definitely ought to know this issue better than he does before speaking on it at all.
I don’t disagree with you. But as for Stephen Amell should know better…that can be said of everyone because stuff like this is pretty common from actors, to politicians, to just ordinary people. It’s happened before, it will happen again, and it happens everyday to a varying degree. It’s just a matter of what makes headlines.As for encouraging it. I can’t speak for anyone but myself. I don’t really use social media, nor follow anyone. Pretty much everything I see is either a reaction, or an observation, but not an instigation. Honestly it’s just a matter of presence. Stephen Amell has enough presence in the industry to get enough attention on his views to the point that the public reacts. You won’t get that same reaction from someone like Jesse Cutler who would say the exact same thing to his 13 followers and his most notable accomplishment in his career was playing corpse number 4 on an episode of Blue Bloods season 2.
That’s the problem with the Internet, it supports having a completely black and white view of everything, if what you say doesn’t fit the narrative of good guys vs bad guys , then you basically get lumped in with the bad guys . I mean striking here is a massively important tactic , especially against large corporations who will literally love to have people work for pennies , but striking is always going to hurt people caught in the middle . I’m a veteran of western Europe in the 70s and 80s where increasingly conservative governments clashed with trade unions , and that led to things like the 3 day week in Britain, where the UK government decided to bring things to a head by basically cutting power everywhere in the evening by 10.30 ( I should add that I am not old enough to remember this , but know people who were)https://www.historyhit.com/when-the-lights-went-out-in-britain-the-story-of-the-three-day-working-week/Stuff like that or wildcat rail or bus strikes that left people unable to get to work ( or worse , get home), are not fun.In the current case the people caught in the middle are pretty much anyone who works in the industry who isn’t an actor or writer , ( unless their unions have a fund to support them through this?). Tldr :Strikes massively important , and sometimes nessacary , but not to be taken lightly.
Damn, Amell’s PR guy got here fast.
I didn’t know until now that the rules said they couldn’t plug their shows. I mean, I knew most people hadn’t been but I just figured it was because there was either nothing to plug with everything halted, or because without all the late-night shows and even a lot of entertainment news held up, the hype train’s kind of halted too on a lot of stuff.Still I’m happy to see that Amell’s reversed course (or maybe made his course more clear? whatever) on this, as I like the guy. Met him once at a con and he seemed like a genuinely nice dude, although he did seem to take Arrow way too seriously, which I guess I kinda get since he was literally the lead (hard to say “yeah it’s pretty dumb” when you’re actively starring in something).
i think its ok for him to be frustrated at not being able to work, its fair to vent about it emotionally but he probably shouldn’t have tried to dress it up as an intellectual argument in his initial statement.
This lad needs to stfu and get back on his salmon ladder.