Sean Penn won’t return to ‘Gaslit’ series unless cast and crew get their shots – deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Back from the Cannes launch of his film Flag day, Sean Penn has drawn a line in the sand, which challenges Hollywood leadership to go further by imposing vaccination requirements for everyone on a movie or television set.

In a move that will likely spill over into an industry still trying to deal with Covid, Penn refuses to return to work on Gas lit – the limited series Starz produced by UCP in which he stars with Julia Roberts – until all members of the production are vaccinated against the virus. With the highly contagious Delta variant raging enough that Los Angeles has reimposed the wearing of the indoor mask and cases among the unvaccinated once again increasing to alarming levels across the country, Penn insisted that the immunization of everyone is compulsory. Through his organization, CORE, Penn offered to facilitate the vaccination effort, free of charge.

Gas lamp studio, NBCUniversal, this week made mandatory vaccinations mandatory in “Zone A,” which makes up the cast and those in close proximity. An email was sent to the cast and crew on Wednesday informing them that an on-site clinic was available to provide free vaccinations against Covid, carried out by the same supplier offering vaccinations to NBCUniversal and the teams of production on the upper lot. The memo says there are multiple vaccine choices available and the vendor will be back in 21 days to administer a second dose, if needed. The memo also asked members of production to present proof of vaccination to the Covid testing team when they report for their next shift on production.

Not good enough, according to Penn, who has a few more weeks to go.

Penn is not doing this to embarrass the studio, or out of fear that he and the other stars will be exposed, as Penn has been fully vaccinated. This is based on the premise that not being vaccinated puts everyone around you in danger on a set, where the crew that are not in Zone A can still come close and potentially spread a variant just by being in an actor’s trailer, for example. This is one of the first examples of a filmmaker or star directly challenging Hollywood executives to go beyond a recent deal and put tough rules on a production by requiring everyone to be vaccinated.

Gas lit is shot primarily indoors in Burbank. While early Hollywood productions steadfastly adhered to safety protocols and testing to prevent the spread of Covid – and NBCUniversal has done so from the start – vaccination has always been seen as a personal choice, even though experts attribute the recent spike in cases to those who chose not to get bitten.

Mandatory vaccinations on productions An option as part of the return to work protocols

This puts NBCUniversal in a position; the studio was part of negotiations between Hollywood unions and big business that led to approval that Covid-19 vaccinations on film and television productions could be mandatory. But the new protocols, they said in a joint statement on Monday, only give producers “the ability to implement mandatory vaccination policies for actors and the team in Zone A on a production-by-production basis. “. Zone A, where unmasked actors work, is the most restrictive of the secure work zones on the sets.

It’s everyone else that Penn worries about. It’s not entirely surprising that Penn, who plays Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell, takes a stand with Roberts playing his wife Martha, in a drama inspired by the Slate podcast. Slow combustion. Penn and his CORE cohorts have spent the past year and a half working with city and state officials to make testing available early on, and then to help facilitate vaccinations when they become available. The result was about 5.3 million tests and 1.7 million vaccines.

The series is created by Robbie Pickering and Mr. Robot ‘s Sam Esmail with directing Matt Ross, and sources said the production was in favor of Penn’s wish and the studio did everything to adhere to safety protocols on set. But sources said Universal may not have the legal leeway to impose mandatory vaccinations until it has been negotiated with unions and other studios.

If Penn stays out, it will delay production. Stay tuned.