CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When he isn’t busy teaching acting classes, Pat Dortch spends his time promoting his work on the silver screen. 

But all of that has been put on hold since the union strikes began in Hollywood.

Dortch dove into acting in 2011.

What You Need To Know

  • Pat Dortch began acting in 2011 and now runs Dortch Acting Studio in Charlotte

  • He says what makes him most nervous is the new use of AI in the entertainment field

  • He says all SAG-AFTRA members need to prepare for the long haul to make sure they fight for their rights

“I needed some sort of creative outlet,” Dortch said. “So I started taking acting classes, and the next thing I knew I had an agent, and I was on network television show, and it just kind of went from there. There's a really rich film community in North Carolina. Charlotte's got a great film community, and then, of course, there's just tons of work in Georgia, not just Atlanta, but all over Georgia.”

Which is why Dortch says picket lines in California and New York are still making big waves down south.

“People don't realize that there's crews involved, there's catering involved,” Dortch said. “You have to put somebody up in a hotel. So that's involved.”

Dortch says Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists members are fighting for the future of the film industry.

“The thing that concerns me most about the strike is artificial intelligence and the ability to have it written and the ability to have actors' images used and created by a computer,” Dortch said.

What began as a dispute over how actors and writers are being paid in regard to streaming has led to more discussions of how production companies plan to use the rights of a background actors’ likeness or image forever.

“You could end up in a film that you would never be in,” Dortch said. “But now technically you are because your likeness is they're doing the work in the background.”

Dortch believes the switch to AI will dilute the industry as a whole.

“It's so important that we have actual humans giving us that truth, so that you can look up on the TV or you can look up on the movie screen when you go to the theater and say, 'Oh my God, that's me.' I feel that way,” Dortch said. “It's that experience that I'm concerned about is at stake, you know, going forward.”

In an interview Disney CEO Bob Iger said he believes what the unions are asking for is unrealistic at this time.