John Cusack Slams Studios' Greed, Calls AI a 'Criminal Enterprise': They'll 'Scan Extras, Possess Their Likeness Forever, and Eliminate Them'

As the SAG-AFTRA strike begins, John Cusack took to his Twitter account to criticize the greed of studios. The actor has shared a story about starring in 'Say Anything,' Cameron Crowe's classic 1989 teen romance about a mediocre high school student who falls for the valedictorian after graduation . According to Cusack, he received no percentage of the film's box office gross and was later told by the studio that the film lost $44 million. The actor remains skeptical about this assertion.

"Greed is almost a legendary comic trope," Cusack wrote. "Fun fact - when I was young - I made a movie (with a boom box) and somehow I got points - clean not gross. I never expected to see money - but the movie got pretty famous - so about 10 years ago - I looked again at the financials they were required to report - and to my amazement - they claimed to have LOST $44 million on the movie.”

"I thought wow, I almost bankrupted Fox!" (not really),” Cusack added. "The movie cost about 13 million to make - and the money spent to release was minimal at the time - 30 years later - this movie has lost millions every year! A neat accounting trick, don't you think?"

SAG-AFTRA Members Join Writers Guild of America for Fair Compensation, making it a "double strike," something that hasn't happened in Hollywood since 1960. The WGA has been on strike since May 2. SAG-AFTRA picketing officially begins July 14. The rise of the artificial intelligence.

"Studios want to work extras one day, scan them - own their likeness forever - and cut them out of the business," Cusack wrote of how studios want to use AI to get rid of some acting jobs. "Think they'll stop with extras? That's what AI is – gigantic copyrighted identity theft."

Cusack went on to say that the studios are running a "criminal enterprise" and will claim in 10 years that they had no idea that the background actors would be eliminated by the AI. He posted his thoughts on Twitter while sharing the now-viral video of SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher swearing at the studios as the strike was announced.

"We are the victims here. We are the victims of a very greedy entity," Drescher said. about SAG-AFTRA "I can't believe it, quite frankly: how far apart we are on so many things. How [the studios] plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right right hand giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It's disgusting. Shame on them."

See Cusack's Twitter posts below.