Dispatches From WGA Picket Lines Day 9: Black Writers Hit Paramount With Robin Thede, Samira Wiley & Gaby Sidibe As John Leguizamo Joins NYC Picket Parade
10.05.2023 - 23:05
/ deadline.com
After yesterday’s Imagine Dragons party outside Netflix, it was Paramount’s turn to pop.
Around 900 picketers flooded the streets near Melrose supporting the WGA West’s Committee of Black Writers.
These included stars such as Samira Wiley, Gabby Sidibe, Kendrick Sampson and Robin Thede.
Precious star Sidibe told Deadline, “I am striking with the writers because if they don’t work, I can’t work”, while Orange Is The New Black star Wiley said she was on the picket line to support her writer wife, Lauren Morelli. “My house is a two union household,” she added.
Thede, creator and star of HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, warned the studios to “stop being cheap”. “I’m striking because paying writers a day rate is an abomination. We are still professionals and we deserve to be paid that way,” she added.
WHY I'M STRIKING: “Because paying writers a day wage is abomination. We are skilled professionals and deserve to be paid that way…” Robin Thede tells Deadline outside of Paramount Studios in LA today #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/GEgrUIFNBf
Kendrick Sampson, who has starred in Insecure, The Flash and How To Get Away with Murder, told Deadline that people underestimated how many people would show up in support of Black writers. “Everybody thought it was going to be about 10 people out here, but there’s hundreds and they’re demanding pay and a better existence. Our storytellers need to be protected, especially in a time of CRT and attacks on our stories. We need to make sure that we support and create safe spaces and good material conditions, pay, money for these writers,” he said.
Robert and Michelle King were also there in support, a day after CBS picked up Elsbeth, their latest spinoff of The Good Wife, and added it to the