Reel 360 has learned that streaming giant, Netflix, will now reportedly require actors and close contacts on their domestic productions to be vaccinated against COVID-19. TheWrap reports.
Netflix now beomes first Hollywood company to demand protection for those on set. According to TheWrap, the mandate covers those considered “Zone A,” which includes the cast and everyone who comes in close contact with them. The mandates are part of the new changes to Hollywood’s Return to Work agreement, which was renewed earlier this month.
Universal Content Productions’ Watergate-based TV series Gaslit, which stars Sean Penn and Julia Roberts, also requires those in Zone A to be vaccinated. Penn has stated that he wants Hollywood to go even further and make vaccinations mandatory for the entire crew.
These mandates now follow the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP) short-term agreement with Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and the Basic Crafts, and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) last week.
REELated: Producers can mandate vaccinations in agreement with unions
The modifications center on workplace practices for fully vaccinated cast and crew, including changes to outdoor masking requirements and updated mealtime protocols. Producers will have the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis.
But they also came with the option for productions and studios to implement mandates, which Netflix has apparently done.
According to Deadline Netflix’s decision comes amid a fourth Covid wave in the U.S. fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant, which brought Covid safety on set back to the spotlight.
