is a 23-year-old actor in New York City. The Cleveland, Ohio, native has been acting since the age of 6, and she has appeared in four short films since 2021. Duke hasn’t joined SAG-AFTRA because of the membership fees, but she supports the strike because of the union’s desire to fix the residuals process and to build safeguards against the threats of artificial intelligence.It’s taken so long.
I’ve done front desk work. I’ve done temp work, cater-waiter work, nannying. I did food delivery during the pandemic for people who were in need and couldn’t leave the house. I’ve also done assistant jobs in fashion.Journalists hear all the time, “You can’t be in this for the money,” but we want to be able to pay our bills.
Could you describe the process of joining SAG-AFTRA, and when you started to notice chatter within the community that a strike was pending?I’m SAG-AFTRA-eligible, but I’m still non-union right now. The reason why I haven’t joined is because of the dues and heavy entry fees, which is something I think is very important to note. Before the strike was official, the most chatter I heard about it from my colleagues was, “The inflation in the residuals is kind of wonky now.
“We starve because we’re artists that love our craft. But we also deserve a living wage and being able to live a full life on top of it.” To see how capitalism, and sadly, in my opinion, greed, can be so dehumanizing in an industry that’s supposed to be humanizing, was really a bummer. In this ad I saw on Instagram, it was just an AI tool that could help you weed out auditions. Let’s say the casting director or the program says, “I only want to see blond girls for this role.” Then, the AI wipes out all the submissions that aren’t blond girls, which could make sense. But wigs are a thing. If it’s about hair color, that’s an easy fix. Someone can dye their hair. So the AI tool is not acknowledging talent.