Just two months before Hollywood screenwriters staged their first strike in more than a decade, longtime staffer Ellen Stutzman stepped up and into a role she had unknowingly been preparing for her entire career: chief negotiator for the Writers Guild of America.
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As such, she would represent the interests of 11,500 film and television scribes, many of whom believed their profession was under existential threat from the growth of the streaming business model. They were counting on her to stand up to the powerful studios and streamers. And she had big shoes to fill, replacing famously tough dealer David Young, who had suddenly gone on medical leave.
How’d it all turn out?
Stutzman and the WGA negotiating committee achieved a historic deal with the entertainment companies to end the writers’ strike after 148 hard-fought days — securing increases in wages and residuals, minimum staff requirements in TV writers’ rooms, a first-of-its kind bonus system based on the success of streaming shows and protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
Many of those were issues that studio executives insisted were nonstarters when the WGA went on strike in May.
“What I felt I did well was handle the stress,” Stutzman, 42, said. “And I did it by always remembering what the task at hand was. ... Our members had told us that there had been changes in the business that were undermining this profession.”
Stutzman was no novice. After graduating from Cornell University, she joined the western branch of the WGA in 2006 as a research analyst, revered by her colleagues for her sharp intellect and deep understanding of the issues affecting guild members. By 2018, she had been elevated to assistant executive director of the WGA West, commanding the agency, contracts, legal and research and public policy sectors of the union.
Fresh off the success of the walkout, Stutzman recently was chosen to succeed Young once again — this time as executive director of the WGA West. In a November memo to members, the union’s board of directors hailed Stutzman for her “instrumental” leadership during the writers’ strike, as well as the “key strategic role” she played in the WGA’s 2019 fight against the big Hollywood talent agencies over controversial business practices such as packaging fees.
And her battles aren’t over. Her overall aim for the months and years ahead? “Just making sure that this union remains the fighting organization that it has shown to be,” she said.
