Abbi Jacobson Might Have Been Called Out For Supporting IATSE While Still Shooting Unreasonably Long Hours
Fresh off from Katherine Heigl’s vindication over calling out long work hours in Hollywood productions, others have joined in the call out the allegedly bad working conditions faced by film production crew members. Anyone who helps make the magic happen behind the camera is currently fighting for a better contract through their union, IATSE. Abbi Jacobson, co-creator, producer, and current star of Amazon Studios’ A League of Their Own series, recently acknowledged the IATSE negotiations and lent her support. But, as some internet detectives have discovered, Abbi’s support may ring a little hollow, because the A League of Their Own set might be one of those bad ones.
An anonymous whistleblower account, IATSE Stories, was created on Instagram to shed light on the working conditions of film crews, under the safety of anonymity. Yesterday, the following anonymous message was posted by IATSE Stories, which alleged that there’s a show currently filming that is routinely pushing seventeen-to-nineteen-hour shoot days on a crew that can barely stay awake. That’s bad. But what’s worse, according to this unnamed crew member, is that the main actress-slash-producer of the series had posted on Instagram showing solidarity with the crew fighting for better working conditions. And that’s worthy of an eye roll because a producer has the power to call “It’s a wrap!” after nine hours, not nineteen hours.
ONTD notes that just two days before that anonymous report was posted, Abbi posted this picture to Instagram, featuring some cast and crew of A League of Their Own, and stating that crews “need better treatment,” including this one, which has been a “really hard” shoot on their crew. A League of Their Own has been filming for the past couple of months. Abbi co-created the show, wrote a few episodes, and she also serves as an Executive Producer. And yes, I guess one could call this a “photo op.” Hmmm…
It sure didn’t take long for someone to hop into the comments section of Abbi’s post and point out that as the co-creator, star, and Executive Producer, she totally has the power to actually do something about a busted workplace. She responded in the comments and acknowledged that her post looks like nothing more than a pat on her own back for the sake of optics.
“You’re completely right. I am a producer on it. And I can fully see how this feels only performative. But the other producers and I have been trying to make changes almost constantly to address the issues we have control over. We clearly have a very long way to go on this show and in general, but I do believe I can and should stand in solidarity with everything @iatse is fighting for.”
Scrolling through the comments of that IATSE post will show that many people have guessed that the anonymous production in question was A League of Their Own, with one Instagram user claiming to be part of the ALOTO crew, and confirming that it’s a shit show. And, over in Abbi’s comments, word on the inside of the industry is that the ALOTO shoot is allegedly pulling “brutal hours,” as one user put it. Abbi hasn’t commented on any of that. Amazon Studios hasn’t said anything about this either. But that’s probably just because Jeff Bezos is congratulating Abbi on doing Amazon proud by working her employees into exhaustion while inquiring about whether she’s considered increasing productivity to 20 hours a day by replacing the on-set toilets with water bottles.
Pic: Wenn.com