Highlights
- Ben Affleck’s “Artist Equity” plan aims to provide fair compensation for actors even after a film’s release.
- Affleck implemented this new rule in five of his films and is pleased with the positive results.
- Keanu Reeves is also making a contract change to prevent deepfake edits from altering his performances.
The times are changing in Hollywood, and residual pays for films aren’t what they used to be. Ben Affleck is looking to change that, and he’s already implementing new contract clauses in his films. We’ll reveal what Affleck’s “Artist Equity” plan is, and why he’s receiving praise for it. Affleck’s plan is already in play, and off to a positive start.
We’ll also take a closer look at another actor trying to improve Hollywood with a contract rule of his own preventing “Deep Fakes” in films. We’ll reveal what Keanu Reeves is doing to prevent ridiculous edits in the editing room after actors are done shooting a film.
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Prior to his film Air making its debut on Amazon Prime, Ben Affleck made quite the reveal alongside Wired, introducing a new contract plan for a fairer streaming world. Ben’s mindset behind the plan was for actors to get a bigger compensation once their work on a film is done with. If the film succeeds for years following its release, well then the same holds true for the actors involved. Such compensation does make a lot of sense.
Affleck revealed how he thought of implementing this new “rule.”
“It came to mind, slowly, through my experience producing and directing movies and looking at how the resources were spent. Also recognizing that the evolution of streaming services was putting a cap on people’s abilities to benefit in the long term on an annuity basis.”
The actor continued on, discussing his own experiences with residual pay, which seemed to be diminishing in Hollywood.
“One of my fondest memories is of discovering a $400 residual check in the mailbox when I was on the verge of bankruptcy—if you can call it that when you don’t own anything. If you’re an actor and you did a week on a TV show that was very successful, you would expect to be able to make some [annuity] money because of the success of the collective effort. Now, that’s not the case. So I constructed this model.”
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Affleck was praised for his efforts in trying to compensate others. It seems like he’s off to a positive start with the new contract clause.
Ben Affleck Called His Artists Equity Approach A Major Success Early On
The on-set experience has been a positive one thus far for Ben Affleck and his artist equity approach. The actor revealed that it is the fifth time already that he has implemented the rule in one of his films.
He said, “We’re in our fifth movie. It’s been the greatest pleasure to see people capture bonuses based on their own work, that reflects their merit—and to not have people feel like anonymous drones. I’ve worked in this business for a long time. I know that anyone who’s really good has put their work before their self-interest as a matter of course. But they want to be empowered.”
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Ultimately, the goal of ‘Artists Equity’ isn’t just to help out actors, but the entire crew.
“The founding philosophy is to reward the artist, to allow them to be more responsible and accountable and to expand their compensation if their work is successful. And by the artist, I mean writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, prop people, and a whole host of people you never see in movies but who are contributing an enormous amount.”
A great move from Affleck, but it seems like he isn’t the only star in Hollywood taking a stand.
Ben Affleck Isn’t The Only Actor In Hollywood Applauded For Making A Major Contract Change
It seems like Keanu Reeves was also applauded for going against Hollywood with a strict rule in his contract. Keanu Reeves took aim at a different issue, which involves Deepfake Edits behind the scenes. The actor doesn’t like the fact that such edits take away from his work on a film.
He said, “Yeah, digitally. I don’t mind if someone takes a blink out during an edit,” Reeves said. “But early on, in the early 2000s, or it might have been the ’90s, I had a performance changed. They added a tear to my face, and I was just like, ‘Huh?!’ It was like, I don’t even have to be here.”
The actor continues, “What’s frustrating about that is you lose your agency. When you give a performance in a film, you know you’re going to be edited, but you’re participating in that. If you go into deepfake land, it has none of your points of view. That’s scary. It’s going to be interesting to see how humans deal with these technologies. They’re having such cultural, sociological impacts, and the species is being studied. There’s so much ‘data’ on behaviors now.”
The actor has concerns about the future of media and where it’s headed. Credit to both Affleck and Reeves for taking a stand in an attempt to make Hollywood a better place.