The cast of Oppenheimer walked out of the film’s U.K. premiere on Thursday in “solidarity” with the actors’ strike.

Hollywood stars including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Rami Malek attended the red carpet event at the Odeon in Leicester Square in London to promote the eagerly-awaited war drama.

The group then left the premiere prematurely due to the strike action called on Thursday.

The walk-out came after the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union announced that it had voted in favour of taking action.

The film’s director Christopher Nolan said to the cinema’s audience, “You’ve seen them here earlier on the red carpet.”

He continued, “Unfortunately, they’re off to write their picket signs for what we believe to be an imminent strike by SAG, joining one of my guilds, the Writers Guild, in the struggle for fair wages for working members of the unions, and we support them.”

Hollywood actors began the strike after talks between the union and major studios and streaming giants broke down. Hollywood writers are already taking industrial action, having been on strike for two months.

A “double strike” has not been seen since the 1960s and threatens to bring the industry to a halt.

The premiere of the highly anticipated film comes ahead of the movie’s release on the 21 July.

– Cover Media