Abigail Thorn Reminds Us That Hollywood’s Response to Strikes Is Bad for International Labor

On July 22, British YouTuber and actress Abigail Thorn posted a video to TikTok, in which she discussed how Hollywood exploits the United Kingdom’s weak union laws to ensure cheap labor and how this practice will worsen if the writers’ and actors’ strikes are successful.

Thorn is best known as the creator of Philosophy Tube, a YouTube channel dedicated to providing free education in philosophy. She started the channel in 2013 following the UK’s tuition fee increase.

Thorn is also an actress. She voiced a sexy demon in Baldur’s Gate 3, narrated the audiobook Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis, and wrote and starred in The Prince, an Off-West End play based on William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 characters becoming self-aware.

In what might be Thorn’s biggest break to date, The Direct reported that she had been cast as Ensign Eurus in the Star Wars series The Acolyte in June. However, neither The Walt Disney Company nor Lucasfilm has commented on the casting rumors. If true, she’d be the first-ever trans woman to get a Star Wars role; even better, she’d be acting alongside non-binary actor Amandla Stenberg, who is playing the lead role.

Watch Thorn’s TikTok video below:

The United Kingdom’s anti-union stance

Thorn says in the TikTok that, as “a British actress and writer,” she’s worried about how the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America strikes will impact UK workers, as many Hollywood productions are made in Britain. Thorn explains many reasons for this: “One, the government gives the production companies tax breaks, and two, we have a large English-speaking workforce.”

“Britain also has very low wages and very strict anti-union laws,” Thorn continues. In June 2023, a UN workers’ rights watchdog, the International Labour Organization, slammed the UK’s anti-union drive, called on the nation’s ministers to ensure UK union legislation aligns with international law, and issued rare instructions for the ministers to seek technical assistance from ILO staff. The Trade Union Congress labeled the ILO’s “rare intervention” in the UK’s labor legislation “hugely embarrassing” for ministers.

The Hollywood strikes don’t protect UK-based entertainers from employer retaliation for participating in the strikes. Under UK employment law, actors represented by SAG-AFTRA and Equity, SAG-AFTRA’s sister union in the UK, could be required to work on projects filmed in the country. “A performer joining the strike (or refusing to cross a picket line) in the UK will have no protection against being dismissed or sued for breach of contract by the producer,” Equity cautioned to BBC News

WTF, does Hollywood label UK workers as “white Mexicans”?

“In certain corners of Hollywood, they give British workers the nasty nickname ‘white Mexicans,'” Thorn alleges, “which is problematic for many reasons.”

Hold up, wait a minute: “White Mexicans”?

Although I am familiar with the phrase when used to describe Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who pass as white (like my grandma), Thorn’s TikTok is the first I’ve seen it used as a slur for UK workers. But, given the offensive statements from Hollywood executives recently, it’s not hard to believe—plus, a quick Google search turned up a Frost Magazine article alleging Hollywood uses the phrase to describe UK workers, indicating that American producers know that Brits are being exploited.

“Producers are always on the lookout for new talent which won’t break the budget. Enter stage right all those eager and ambitious British actors hungry for that Hollywood breakthrough,” Scottish TV producer Andrea Calderwood told the Caledonian Mercury, as reported by Frost Magazine.

On TikTok, Thorn gave a similar warning as Calderwood. She said, “If these companies can’t replace American workers with AI, they’ll replace you with the British. You might think, ‘Oh, Abigail, that sounds like great news for you. It means more jobs.’ But no, [it’s not great news] if those jobs are exploitative.” 

She continues, “It’s small and medium-sized jobs that will end up being done by the Brits: background actors, makeup artists, caterers, production staff drivers, stunt and intimacy coordinators, and even small and medium-level artists, like me … We will be just as exploited as our American colleagues are now; only because of our anti-union laws, it’ll be harder for us to fight back.”

“I hope it doesn’t shake out like that,” she concludes. “I hope to get to be an actress until I’m a very old lady. It’s that pesky capitalism that keeps getting in the way.”

(featured image: Nebula)