The below missive, which contains the recognition that an actor’s strike is not the answer to Hollywood’s salary difficulties, is seriously awesome. Deadline Hollywood posts Peter Coyote’s Open Letter To Lead Actors:

Since 1990 the earnings of the top leading actors have increased exponentially while the salaries of nearly all other actors have been systematically driven down. In many cases, the earnings of established character actors have been rolled back by 60-70 percent. This occurs, in large part, because the working professional (as opposed to the star) is at a disadvantage when negotiating in the new corporatized production environment. We do not possess a unique, marketable (and often media exploited) brand, and consequently lack the power to make or break the existence or profitability of a film. Consequently, respected, veteran actors with numerous credits and hard-earned “quotes” now routinely receive “take-it-or-leave it” offers, often at “scale”—a beginners wage.

Our actor’s Guild has two weapons to employ in protecting its members: the threat or fact of strike, and the power of its “star” members. The power to strike is the union’s ultimate weapon, but it is a crude and draconian one and wounds everyone in our industry. Consequently, like nuclear weapons, it is rarely used. The industry is currently facing its second strike this year because the majority of its membership is suffering and feel they have no other recourse. If you possess only one weapon, it’s the one you use. Given the radical depression in earnings there’s little wonder that a strike is on the table again.

There is a simple way leading actors might bring a second, more flexible and targeted weapon into the fray on behalf of your colleagues which incidentally, would provide the ancillary benefit of insuring that you consistently play opposite actors of the highest caliber. If you were to include language in your contracts specifying that, in your films, the “quotes” of your peers must be recognized as a negotiating floor for their compensation, if you publicized that fact, and, if you kicked back a modest amount, say on salaries over six million dollars a film to make that money available, each and every actor negotiating to play opposite you would be empowered to demand the fair compensation that he or she has won for their work.

Let’s hope that this letter is actually read and taken seriously by the right people–a group that includes George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz, Will Ferrell, and (for a few remaining moments) Tom Cruise. Not incidentally, each of these actors starred in at least one recent film for which their star power failed to put asses in seats. (Exactly how Nicole Kidman continues to earn upfront salaries is beyond my recognition.) When Coyote asks these actors to “relate to the non-celluloid world,” they had better realize that it’s not just the stuff of legend.

Read the rest of Peter Coyote’s letter at Deadline Hollywood.