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Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley Reunite in Sweary ‘Wicked Little Letters’ 

Olivia Colman poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the film "Wicked Little Letters" on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 in London. (VAP)
Olivia Colman poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the film "Wicked Little Letters" on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 in London. (VAP)
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Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley Reunite in Sweary ‘Wicked Little Letters’ 

Olivia Colman poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the film "Wicked Little Letters" on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 in London. (VAP)
Olivia Colman poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere for the film "Wicked Little Letters" on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 in London. (VAP)

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley play two very different neighbors in new film "Wicked Little Letters", a comedy mystery based on a real life British scandal from the 1920s, which saw people receiving expletive-laden notes.

Set in an English seaside town, the movie follows Colman's pious and conservative Edith and Buckley's loud and rowdy Irish migrant Rose as they become friends.

When Edith starts receiving anonymous poison pen letters, Rose is arrested and charged with the crime. Other locals begin receiving similar letters, causing a national uproar and ensuing trial.

"I think because of the poison pen letters, the obvious parallel is modern day trolling on a much bigger scale," Colman told Reuters of the movie, in a joint interview with Buckley.

"There's also a parallel between the perception of what a woman should be."

The cast includes Timothy Spall as Edith's stern father Edward and Anjana Vasan as police officer Gladys Moss, who unlike her male superiors, suspects something is amiss and rallies other women to investigate who the real letter writer is.

The film is based on real events that happened in the town of Littlehampton.

"This is true. It was debated in parliament and the newspapers did all cover it, and the whole nation was gripped. Who could possibly be using swearwords like that?" Colman said, adding it was "quite hard to not giggle" on set when some of the letters' profane and absurd language was read out.

Buckley said working with Oscar-winning Colman was one of the appeals of joining the cast. Both starred in 2021 drama "The Lost Daughter".

"It was just the subversion of what you think a British period drama is and these two women that are on either side of a coin who are actually similar in many ways but go on a journey of expressing what they need to express," she added.

Asked if as celebrities it was hard not to read comments about them online, Colman said: "Neither of us are on social media... I think I would care (what people wrote) and that's why I don't want to know. I'm not thick skinned enough to cope with that."

"I don't really want anybody knowing anything about my private life, they see enough of me," Buckley added.

"Wicked Little Letters" is released in UK cinemas from Friday.

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Entertainment

Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.