The Screen Actors Guild Union offers many things to it’s Members, including low cost insurance. Once I was offered a job by Bryon Allen as a syndicator in his company and one of the perks he offered was that he would put me on camera a few times so I could get a SAG card. Having a SAG card would also help wrestlers get potential work on union TV, movie & comercial projects.
Info on how to get a SAG card can be found at http://www.hollywoodaccess.com/sag.htm
The loscolonyentertainment.com & aintitcool.com articles on this are below.
http://www.lostcolonyentertainment.com/ (Also at this link is an article about Aronofsky meeting with Vonce McMahon)
‘Wrestler’ Director Calls for Screen Actors Guild to Intervene on Behalf of Real-Life Wrestlers
Friday, December 29, 2008
As we reported several days ago, World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon was reportedly angered by the content of Darren Aronofskyâs critically acclaimed film, âThe Wrestler,â after the filmmaker gave the wrestling promoter a private screening at his Stamford, Connecticut offices.
The film, which centers on an aging wrestler named Randy âThe Ramâ Robinson (played by Mickey Rourke)–who goes from headlining major WWE-like events to performing in high school gyms in front of 200 fans–apparently struck a raw nerve with McMahon, who is allegedly blocking Foxâs attempts to advertise the film during WWE broadcasts on Fox-owned MyNetwork..
Aronofsky probably didnât endear himself to McMahon with recent comments heâs made regarding the unionization of the wrestling industry either.
âThereâs really no reason why these guys are not in SAG,â Aronofsky told Newsday. âTheyâre in front of a camera performing and doing stunts, and they should have that protection. They should have health insurance and they should be protected.”
Curiously, McMahon has long maintained that his âindependently contractedâ performers arenât athletes but âentertainers,â partially to get around having his events regulated by state athletic commissions. However, in order to keep the Screen Actors Guild out of his business, his shows are strangely identified as âsports programming.â
“Iâm really curious to see what some of these old-timers make of it,â said Aronofsky in an interview with Reelz Channel. âWhen I won the Golden Lion, I dedicated the film to all the wrestlers, I kind of shared their stories. Theyâre a unique lot. Theyâre not organized, they have no pension, no health care, so many of them are tragically dying at a young age. I was talking to Mickey, â~Why arenât wrestlers in SAG?â If you really think about it, the Screen Actors Guild should organize themâ¦Theyâre performing in front of a camera, and stuntmen are SAG.”
Interestingly enough, Rourke was nominated this past week for Best Actor at the SAG Awards for his role in âThe Wrestler.â
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39603
Darren Aronofsky is calling upon SAG to bring Wrestlers into the Union?!?!?
Hey folks, Harry here… I completely agree with Darren’s take here. It’s obvious that Wrestling is not an athletic event, the results are pre-determined, the action is at least partially choreographed. The wrestlers have lines and schtick that they perform on Television and pay per view. The perform characters and there are writers employed to feed them lines and story arcs to perform. That’s acting. It’s violent acting. There’s stunt work, but it is acting and performing. The story was sent to me by LostColonyEntertainment.com which has the full story, which I thought was interesting. What do you folks think about this?
âThereâs really no reason why these guys are not in SAG,â Aronofsky told Newsday. âTheyâre in front of a camera performing and doing stunts, and they should have that protection. They should have health insurance and they should be protected.”
