'Mission Impossible' Star Hayley Atwell: Hollywood 'An Industry On Its Knees'

Actress Hayley Atwell, who star’s in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, has said that Hollywood has become “an industry on its knees.”

Atwell gave her diagnosis on the film industry, which has been crippled by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) strike and the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) strike, when speaking at the London Equity actor’s rally. She quoted research from Deadline when saying that “87% of SAG-AFTRA members don’t earn enough to qualify for health insurance.”

“There is an illusion that if you are seen on telly then you’re fine but for most people that is not the case,” she said. “This is not an industry that is thriving it is an industry on its knees.”

Equity is the U.K. equivalent of SAG and the rally included the likes of Succession star Brian Cox among others. While some Equity stars have expressed solidarity with SAG, UK anti-trade union laws state that “SAG-AFTRA members currently working under an Equity UK collective bargaining agreement should continue to report to work.”

Despite that, Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming told Deadline “we are not going to have the UK used as a backdoor to undermine SAG-AFTRA’s dispute.”

At the rally, actor Brian Cox said that the SAG strike will “affect British Equity far worse than it will probably affect SAG-AFTRA.”

“We are at the thin end of a really horrible wedge,” he said as he addressed the London Equity rally. “SAG is an excellent union but in the U.S. we don’t have a national health service so what is important to SAG actors is health and they need that. That’s why they need their residuals.”

Selma actor David Oyelowo echoed Cox’s sentiments.

“The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in our industry is widening at an alarming rate. The business has continued to evolve and the means of remunerating the people who actually make the stuff isn’t catching up with the evolution,” he said.

Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.