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Hollywood actors will go on strike after talks with studios broke down, joining film and television writers who have been on picket lines since May and deepening the disruption of scores of shows and movies.

Hollywood studios face their first dual work stoppage in 63 years, forcing them to halt many productions across the United States and abroad.

The twin strikes will add to the economic damage from the writers walkout, delivering another blow to an industry struggling with changes to its business.

Both SAG-AFTRA - Hollywood's largest union, representing 160,000 film and television actors - and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are demanding increases in base pay and residuals in the streaming TV era plus assurances that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

The actors' union announced at a Thursday press conference that the strike will begin at midnight after its national board voted unanimously to authorise the walkout.

A deadline to reach a new contract expired on Wednesday.

Fran Drescher, former star of The Nanny TV show and the president of SAG-AFTRA, called the studios' responses to actors' concerns "insulting and disrespectful".

"I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with are treating us," Drescher said at the press conference at the SAG-AFTRA headquarters.

"I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things, how they plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions to their CEOs. It is disgusting."

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that negotiates on behalf of Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co and other production companies, said it was "deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations".

The group said it had offered "historic pay and residual increases" and "a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses".

Actors are worried that their digital images will be used without their permission or proper compensation.

"Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods," the AMPTP said.

The strike by roughly 11,500 writers has sent late-night television talk shows into endless re-runs, disrupted most production for the northern hemisphere autumn TV season and halted work on big-budget movies.

The walkout by SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors from bit-part players to Hollywood's biggest movie stars, will effectively shutter the studios' remaining US-based productions of film and scripted television.

It will also hamper many overseas shoots involving SAG-AFTRA talent, such as Paramount Pictures' sequel to Gladiator, which director Ridley Scott has been shooting in Morocco and Malta.

Some production work not involving SAG-AFTRA performers can proceed, such as location scouting or certain kinds of post-production editing.

But the loss of actors, who will also not do any promotional work for the film and television productions while on strike, will put more pressure on media companies to find a resolution.

Bob Iger, whose contract as Disney's CEO was this week extended to the end of 2026, told CNBC on Thursday that the writers' and actors' unions had unrealistic expectations.

"It's very disturbing to me," Iger said, noting the entertainment industry's ongoing recovery from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption."

Actors say the rise of the streaming era has made it harder to earn their livelihoods, especially for the many thousands of SAG-AFTRA members who are not household names.

"You have to make $US26,000 ($A37,800) a year to qualify for your health insurance and there are a lot of people who get across that threshold through their residual payments," actor Matt Damon said at a promotional event held for the film Oppenheimer on Wednesday.

"There's money being made and it needs to be allocated in a way that takes care of people who are on the margins."

© RAW 2023

Kevin Spacey has fought back tears as he told a London court how his "world exploded" when he was first accused of sexual assault.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court on a dozen charges of sex offences against four men between 2001 and 2013, when they were in their 20s and 30s.

Giving evidence at the start of his defence, Spacey denied committing any sexual assaults and told jurors he had been "crushed" by the allegations.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The 63-year-old became emotional as he described what he said was the impact of separate accusations that were first made in the US in 2017 by actor Anthony Rapp and published by Buzzfeed.

"My world exploded," he said.

"There was a rush to judgment" after the article was published, he added.

"Before the first question was asked or answered, I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything, in a matter of days."

Spacey said that, with the exception of "some courageous and very kind film-makers and producers" who have asked him to join projects, he has not worked since.

The actor told jurors that, in response to Rapp's accusations, he issued a statement in which he said he was gay.

Spacey, who at times wiped tears from his eyes with a tissue, said: "Members of the LGBTQ+ community were upset because I came out while I was responding to an accusation... now I understand why it was read that way."

Rapp, who accused him of making an unwanted sexual advance in 1986 when he was 14, brought a civil lawsuit against the actor but lost the case last year, Spacey said.

"Maybe now that the allegation by Anthony Rapp has been proven to be false, maybe people will read that statement with a little bit more understanding now," he said.

Earlier, Spacey was asked about one of the complainants who alleges the actor assaulted him on up to 12 occasions over a period of about four years in the early 2000s.

The actor described the complainant as "funny and charming and flirtatious".

Asked if he himself was flirtatious, Spacey replied: "Yeah. I'm a flirt, I'm a big flirt."

He said that as his relationship with the complainant developed over time "it became somewhat sexual".

Spacey denied that it was non-consensual, saying: "It didn't happen in a violent, aggressive, painful way. It was gentle and it was touching and it was, in my mind, romantic."

Spacey denied sexually assaulting a second man who alleges the actor subjected him to a tirade of sexualised remarks at a charity event in London and says Spacey spun him round and painfully grabbed his crotch like "a cobra".

"I never said any of the things that he claims I said to him," Spacey said.

On the alleged assault, he added: "It never happened."

Spacey also denied a third complainant's allegations, who says the actor performed oral sex on him while he was passed out in Spacey's London apartment in the late 2000s.

"We had a consensual, I believe nice and lovely evening and then he - if he regretted it immediately, I don't know, I can't speak for him," Spacey said.

The fourth complainant alleges Spacey gave him an "awkward" hug before kissing his neck and then grabbing his crotch after going with friends to where Spacey was staying near Oxford in central England.

Spacey accepted that he may have made what his lawyer Patrick Gibbs described as a "clumsy pass at someone" but denied sexually assaulting the man.

Spacey is expected to face questions from the prosecution on Friday.

© RAW 2023

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey says he "definitely misread the signs" when he allegedly grabbed a man's crotch as he faced prosecutors' questions at his London trial on charges of sex offences against four men.

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges allegedly committed between 2001 and 2013 and said in evidence on Thursday he was "crushed" by the accusations.

The four accusers have said Spacey, who is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court, aggressively groped them and, in the case of one complainant, performed oral sex on him while he was passed out in Spacey's flat.

The two-time Academy Award winner was questioned on Friday by prosecutor Christine Agnew, who asked Spacey whether he regularly used "the crotch grab" when he met men for the first time.

Spacey said he did not, adding: "It is the term grabbing a crotch or groping a crotch that I object to."

He said he was "an affectionate person" and would hug people when he met them, but that he would not pursue someone if they did not appear to be interested in him.

"I, at times, was promiscuous and I had casual, indiscriminate sexual encounters," Spacey said.

Agnew asked Spacey if he felt a "frisson of excitement" if he propositioned straight men.

"I don't know if somebody's gay or straight by looking at them," the actor said.

Spacey was asked about one of the four complainants, who alleges the actor gave him an "awkward" hug, kissing his neck and then grabbing his crotch, after he went with friends to where Spacey was staying near Oxford in central England.

Spacey has admitted making a "clumsy pass" at the man but denied sexually assaulting him.

"I definitely misread the signs that I thought (the man) was sending," Spacey said on Friday.

"I accept that."

Spacey said his contact with the man was not "what you would call a grab or a grope - it is a gentle touch".

Agnew asked if there had been "the beginning of a squeeze" of the man's genitals, which Spacey said there might have been.

Spacey described his encounters with two of the other complainants as "consensual interactions".

"If they went further than they wanted, they didn't tell me," he said.

He said the fourth complainant, who alleges Spacey painfully grabbed his crotch like "a cobra" in the mid-2000s, had "made up his entire story from beginning to end".

© RAW 2023