What was the issue that Sean Austin was highlighting when LotR won at The Screen Actor's Guild?

February 23, 2004 4:07 PM

Can anyone explain the issue that Sean Austin was highlighting when LotR won at The Screen Actor's Guild? I only caught the last half hour and missed what Tim Robbins said before.
posted by feelinglistless to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Robbins paid a tongue-in-cheek compliment to SAG, noting, "Without unions, we'd be working 18-hour days, six days a week," to great laughter. He then turned serious, citing the dependence of working actors on domestic productions, imploring "the power in this room" to stem the tide of runaway production and to "bring back some of those productions into the United States of America." YAHOO NEWS
posted by crunchland at 4:37 PM on February 23, 2004

Response by poster: Cheers. Thanks.
posted by feelinglistless at 11:10 PM on February 23, 2004

Rather ironic, since Astin was on stage to accept an award for a film that was filmed entirely in New Zealand.
posted by smackfu at 8:20 PM on February 24, 2004

Not at all ironic -- that's exactly why he was doing it. Actually it seems like kind of a slap in the face to all the Kiwis on the LOTR crew, not least of whom the director. "You shouldn't have this job! An American should have it!"
posted by kindall at 10:16 PM on February 24, 2004

Ties in closely with this article linked recently by specialk420.
posted by rory at 3:06 AM on February 25, 2004