Equity To Ballot Members Over Digital Scanning In Move That Could Lead Thousands Of British Actors To Refuse To Be Scanned On Set

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of UK actors could refuse to be digitally scanned on set as the Equity union makes history by holding a ballot of its members from the film and TV industry.

As Equity and producer trade body Pact remain deadlocked over guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI), the union is taking things a step further by introducing an indicative ballot over the next fortnight for around 7,000 actors.

The indicative ballot will show the level of support the union has for the action, and could then be followed by a statutory ballot, which the union said it will consider. If a statutory ballot is ratified then actors refusing en masse to do something they are specifically being asked to do on set would be a first. Strike action is not being ruled out further down the line, we are told.

Equity will ask 7,000 members the yes-no question: “Are you prepared to refuse digital scanning on set to secure adequate AI protections?” The ballot opens today and will close on December 18.

Equity’s fear is that actors are being digitally scanned and their data is then used without their consent, which could train AI models. There is no suggestion that this is happening at present. But Pierre Bergman, a doyen among UK background artists, recently told us that actors are being bounced into scans out of fear of having a “target painted on their back” by employers.

Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming said the move boils down to the Pact-Equity negotiations – which have been rumbling for two years – still failing to meet in the middle on AI. He said the union has been left with “no choice” but to “recommend members support industrial action.”

“It is disappointing that Pact is still not agreeing to protect our members when it comes to training AI,” added Fleming. “If bosses can’t ensure someone’s likeness and work won’t be used without their consent, why should performers consent to be digitally scanned in the first place? This indicative ballot gives Equity members an opportunity to send a clear message to the industry: that it is a basic right of performers to have autonomy over their own personhood and identity.”

Pact: “we don’t know what the future looks like”

Pact Deputy CEO Max Rumney told Deadline his members are “well aware of their obligations under data protection law” and have “scanned actors for many years, long before AI was used in production.”

“The issue is when you take all that data and you effectively are creating more content with it,” he added. None of our members are doing that at the moment. They are not selling it or monetising data in this way. We’ve said that we’ll have a dialogue as things develop so that we can have informed discussion about protections and monetisation.”

Rumney said Equity “wants future facing protections and we don’t know what the future looks like.”

Equity and Pact have been in the trenches for months over a new set of contracts and AI has been the constant sticking point. Both Pact and Equity pointed to numerous areas of progress such as digital replicas and synthetic perfomers, but the scanning issue is threatening to set the negotiations back again. This comes two years after American union SAG-AFTRA negotiated artificial intelligence guardrails with the studios, which included areas like data.

AI in TV remains a thorny issue and has been back in the spotlight over the past few weeks due to Tilly Norwood, the AI actor, who has been heavily criticized by Hollywood royalty. Norwood’s creator, the producer Eline Van der Velden, will speak at Content London later today.

The other less controversial negotiation points in the Equity-Pact negotiations revolve around pay, residuals, self tapes and streamer stipulations. Equity has to negotiate separate agreements with the BBC and ITV but both have said that on the issue of AI they will wait until the deal is struck with Pact to make their move.