Sheryl Lee Ralph (Moesha, Instant Mom) received her second Emmy nomination this year for her portrayal of Barbara Howard in Abbott Elementary. She’s also on the SAG-AFTRA committee that’s considering the possibility of an actor’s strike, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We’re fighting for our art,” Ralph tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re fighting for what we love, and what we know people love. We’re not big million-dollar companies. No, we’re people, and we want to enjoy what we do, and we want to make a living at it. That’s what this is about.”
Ralph joined the SAG-AFTRA service while filming the first season of Abbott Elementary. She was angered by changes to the union’s health plan, and she was discussing the changes with costar Liza Ann Walter (The Parent Trap, Shall We Dance). “[Walter] said, ‘That’s exactly why you should be in union service,’” Ralph said. “And I said, ‘Lisa, I do not want to be in union service.’ She said, ‘Sheryl, the union needs you. I need you because we have to do this for everybody else, not just ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Girl, please, no.’”
Ralph feels that there are a lot of misconceptions about actors and their wealth. “We’re talking about plain, old, ordinary, working- people who in 40 years have not gotten a cost of living raise,” she said. She added: “And somehow they’re making people who are just fighting to live look like the bad guys.”
Ralph has made the difficult decision to support the strike. “I know that should there be a strike, it will hurt,” she said. “It might hurt some people more. It might hurt some people less, but if we are able to get an understanding with the larger corporations who do not necessarily understand how we do art because they crunch numbers, and if they think that artificial intelligence is better than a human being, we need to pause and talk about this. If they think that you should be happy with what you’re making? No, I’d be happy if I was making what you’re making.”