Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman blasted Hollywood studio bosses this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, calling out their pay packages and insisting that cost-cutting executives are willing to sacrifice the art of moviemaking for the sake of profit.
Its disgusting, because they dont do anything, Kaufman told Variety. No, they do damage is what they do. They do damage to the art form. And by doing that, they do damage to humanity. And if everything is about the bottom line for them and saving money, then theres nothing left to the art form.
The Academy Award-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer and three-time Oscar nominee is in Sarajevo this week to receive a lifetime achievement award. Throughout the week, hes been spotted on the streets of the Bosnian capital wearing a gray T-shirt reading Writers Guild on Strike. During an interview with Variety, Kaufman peeled off one layer to reveal a second WGA-branded T-shirt beneath it.
At a Sarajevo masterclass on Monday, Kaufman insisted that the difference between art and conventional Hollywood fare is the difference between truth and bullshit.
Studios are going to continue to exist and people are going to continue to make garbage because garbage at this point makes a fortune, he said.
Speaking one-on-one with Variety, Kaufman didnt hold back. [Studio heads] are not ushering in any kind of beautiful work by their presence. Theyre kind of doing the opposite of that. And I think its evidenced in what Hollywood produces, and how the more expensive a movie is, the less value it has to the culture, he said.
The Being John Malkovich scribe was asked about recent comments made by Disney CEO Bob Iger, who said last month that striking writers and actors are not being realistic in their demands. Im wondering if his salary is realistic, Kaufman said. I think saying something like that, from the position hes in, is cynical. Or dishonest.
Representatives for Iger at Disney did not immediately respond to Varietys request for comment.
As for whether studio bosses are too out of touch with the rank-and-file to grasp whats at stake in the labor talks, he added: I think they grasp it. I think they know that their money comes from other people not getting money.
On Thursday, the Writers Guild of America met again with studio representatives, looking for a resolution to the 109-day writers strike. As Variety previously reported, the CEOs of the major studios including Ted Sarandos of Netflix and David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery are expected to hold a joint call on Friday to discuss the next move in the talks, with Donna Langley of NBCUniversal and Dana Walden and Alan Bergman of Disney also expected to participate.
Kaufman told Variety he was hopeful that the latest round of negotiations would yield an end to the stalemate, though he added: I dont think theyre good-faith organizations, historically, but Im hoping it is a different sort of attitude than I anticipate.
He also expressed support for a proposal put forth in a WGA report issued on Thursday, calling for antitrust regulators to prevent consolidation in the streaming marketplace. Creatives, he insisted, would be [better] served by more places that arent under the control of a handful of studio giants.
The use of artificial intelligence has increasingly become a key sticking point in talks between the writers and actors guilds and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Kaufman believes AI poses the greatest existential threat to creators like him.
I think its an extraordinarily dangerous slippery slope. Once its gone down, theres no return, he said. Its the end of creativity for human beings, is what its going to lead to. Its handing it over to a non-sentient, non-feeling, non-rebellious entity.
Kaufman, who was feted with the top honorary film award at the Writers Guild Awards in March, insisted that even his distinctly idiosyncratic style could eventually be aped by artificial intelligence perhaps even sooner than we think.
But hes convinced that even sophisticated AI software would only be able to imitate human emotion and experience, and that using art to portray the full range of that experience is an essential part of what makes us human.
If we stop creating ourselves, then were giving up somethingthats primal, thats essential, thats been part of human experience and necessary to human experience as long as there have been humans. Since there have been cave paintings. Its an urge, a desire to express the experience of being alive, he said.
I dont think its a lesser urge than eating or sex or anything. I think its primal. If we dont understand that its primal, and if were taught that its not, then Im afraid for us.
Tara Karajica and Jessica Kiang contributed reporting to this story.