The writers' and actors' strike in Hollywood has already cost California around five billion dollars, according to the Milken Institute, but the artists "still have energy" and won't give in, said American actor Chris Marrone.

"People are tired, but not demotivated. They still have energy," he said. "We're in this together and we're not going to let them win. This is something I see in the protests outside Netflix, Amazon Studios and Sony."

Quoted by Lusa, Marrone isn't working and says he can barely survive on what he's earning from odd jobs. However, the "Westworld" actor is convinced that the studios will have to give in to end the strike.

"What the unions are asking for is not an exaggeration. It's an ethical agreement to share the wealth," he said, stressing that artists "can't give in on the issue of Artificial Intelligence and residual compensation".

These are two of the most contentious points. Actors and screenwriters want to guarantee that studios won't use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to replace them, and they want to receive residual payments in the `streaming' model.

These are payments that previously gave artists income from series or films licensed for international markets or that were shown on television again.

"It's unregulated greed," said Chris Marrone. "The top executive gets 400 million while the creatives who generate the money get less than 0.5% of that."

It's precisely the same expression used by Portuguese screenwriter Filipe Coutinho, a member of the Portuguese Film Academy based in Los Angeles.

"Why this is happening is simply down to the greed of the studios," he said. "It's more than proven that they'd rather lose more money at this stage than pay what we're entitled to."

Coutinho, who also spoke to Lusa at the beginning of the strike on May 2, remains committed, despite the long months of paralysis: the screenwriters' strike began on May 2, and the actors' strike on July 14.

"I think the biggest surprise, which is yet another confirmation, is the resilience of the writers and actors," said the Portuguese screenwriter. "Particularly from the writers, because they've been on strike for much longer than the actors and the fact that the union seems to remain strong and almost stronger as time goes by, which is not easy at all."

Neither of them can predict a likely date for an agreement. Chris Marrone expects the strike to be resolved before the end of the year and thinks the conflict is dragging on because the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) "didn't realize how effective the strike would be".

Actor Louis MacMillan (stage name) says it's a tough time and he joins the protests almost every day, especially outside Amazon.

"All of this is very necessary and is a reflection of how the business models of many things, not just the big `streaming' studios, need to change," he said.

MacMillan, a member of the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, has been able to audition for commercials, some projects with interim deals and programs covered by different contracts, the so-called "network codes" that cover productions such as talk shows.

This is where there are some signs of cracks in solidarity. Actress and presenter Drew Barrymore has decided to re-tape her daytime talk show without the striking writers present, and although she isn't technically breaking the strike, the decision is being hotly contested.

It is certain, as Filipe Coutinho points out, that there will be consequences in terms of content, especially in 2024.

"It's likely that in the immediate future we'll have a little less content, across the board," he predicted. "What I know will happen for sure is that we'll have a lot fewer films next year, because there's a lot that would have been filmed in these four months and wasn't."

Without a new "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, which made the box office soar this summer with the films "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer", Coutinho predicts that revenues will "drop a lot" in 2024 and unearths the idea that cinema is dead, "which is completely unfounded".

The AMPTP represents Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony.

The effects of the strike, however, have an uneven impact on the studios. Warner Bros. has revised its revenue forecasts downwards, calculating that the strike will have a negative impact of between 300 million and 500 million dollars. Netflix, on the other hand, added 5.9 million new subscribers in the June quarter, when the writers' strike had been going on for almost two months.

"I don't think it's going to be a good year financially for anyone," lamented Coutinho, "but at the same time it's going to be a necessary correction for the next fifteen years and I think it will allow more writers and actors to live a normal life."

In other words, without having to work three jobs to make ends meet while pursuing their dreams of a career in Hollywood.

"That's also what we're fighting for," he said. "There are 99% people there who are always on a tightrope."