George Clooney calls actors' strike 'an inflection point' in Hollywood

George Clooney has thrown his support behind the actors' strike.

It was announced on Thursday that 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members would be joining the Writers Guild of America in a strike, marking the biggest shutdown of Hollywood since the acting and writing unions last went on strike together in 1960.

In a statement to Deadline on Friday, actor/director Clooney spoke out in support of striking SAG members, who are expected to join writers on the picket line.

"This is an inflection point in our industry," he stated. "Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living. For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors, that journey starts now."

Hollywood writers have been on strike since the start of May. The double strike comes after disputes over pay, residuals and the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), among other issues.

Elsewhere, Clooney's Ocean's Eleven co-star Matt Damon expressed his support for the strike while chatting to Deadline at the London premiere of Oppenheimer just before it was made official on Thursday.

"Nobody wants a work stoppage but if our leadership is saying that the deal isn't fair, then we gotta hold strong until we get a deal that's fair for working actors," he insisted. "It's the difference between having healthcare and not for a lot of actors, and we gotta do what's right by them."

Damon and his co-stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Robert Downey Jr. left the premiere after the strike was called.