Law & Order: SVU has hit a few bumps due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Just like almost all of the film and TV productions in the last two years, the long-running NBC drama had to briefly halt production for most of 2020.
So it’s quite understandable when showrunners often get frustrated and lash out at people involved in the project, who pose unnecessary risks to themselves and others working with them.
Now, SVU showrunner, Warren Leight, has taken to Twitter to rant about the inconveniences and trouble caused due to unvaccinated actors.
Leight expressed his frustration and talked about having to recast roles after finding out some of the hired actors hadn’t been vaccinated, mentioning that casting unvaccinated actors is out of the question.
The showrunner added that the whole community has to “look out for each other, especially when working unmasked in close quarters.”
Calling all the misinformation about the vaccines ‘toxic,’ Leight added that although the vast majority of people were vaccinated, he was surprised to see some older members of the community “play Russian Roulette with Covid.”
Leight did not call out anyone in particular however the New York-based series often casts local and Broadway actors from NYC.
NBCUniversal reported has the strictest protocols possible, so firing/recasting even big names is not something the studio is reluctant on if the individual fails to comply with the safety rules and regulations.
The current safety measures have gotten more severe, with daily testing for Zone A and increasingly frequent testing for Zone B, twice or thrice a week due to the Omicron variant. Studios have also been asked to promote vaccine boosters and use N95, KN95, or KF94 masks.
According to TheWrap, insiders have revealed that such mandates are stringent for productions with tight schedules or for actors involved in multiple projects, who have a higher risk of getting infected.
Hollywood Guild’s protocol agreement, which was extended to February 13, 2022, expires this Sunday, with DGA and AMPTP scheduled to “negotiate further changes” with regards to the Omicron surges.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is currently on its season 23. The longest-running primetime drama is also available to stream on NBC.com and the NBC App.
About Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (often abbreviated to Law & Order: SVU or just SVU) is an American crime drama television series created by Dick Wolf’s Wolf Entertainment in association with Universal Television for NBC. Warren Leight, Julie Martin, Mariska Hargitay, Norberto Barba, Arthur Forney, and Peter Jankowski are executive producers.
The show premiered in 1999 and in September 2019, the series became the longest-running primetime U.S. live-action series in the history of television and the only live-action primetime series that debuted in the 1990s and is still producing new episodes.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit follows the style of the original Law & Order in that some episodes are loosely based on real crimes that have received media attention.
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