After being expelled from the Writers Guild of America Friday for allegedly violating strike rules, Park Chan-wook and his writing partner Don McKellar have pushed back on the union’s characterization of their actions on The Sympathizer in 2023.
An official from Park’s production company Moho Film told Korean outlets this week that the duo “completed writing the entire script…and began filming long before the WGA strike began,” adding that the HBO series was in post production by the time the WGA called pencils down.
“Editing does not constitute writing, so it was permitted under WGA regulations,” the official’s statement, which has been verified by Deadline, says. “While editing, the two received a proposal from HBO to change some of the settings. They held a brainstorming session to see if the new settings could be implemented based on the footage. However, they were aware that new script writing was not allowed during the strike, so they did not rewrite or revise any of the existing scripts for any scenes. The new writing took place after the strike ended.”
Per Park and McKellar’s team, the WGA launched the investigation into their potential strike violations in December. The findings were brought to a jury of fellow WGA members which “determined that the violations were unintentional and stemmed from a misunderstanding of their roles during post-production, and recommended only issuing a confidential warning.”
However, the WGA Board of Directors ultimately voted to expel both writers “without specific explanation,” contradicting the recommendation of the jury, the statement to Korean media claims.
Park and McKellar have chosen not to appeal their expulsions due to the time-consuming nature of the process, which Park said would interfere with his other projects. Technically, while it’s certainly a blow to the duo’s stature in Hollywood, it is not a death knell on their careers, because the union can’t legally bar non-members from working with signatories of its MBA. Instead, it does require non-members who work with a signatory under its contracts to pay a fee that offsets the cost of union representation on that project.
The pair are not the only high-profile creatives who are not members of the WGA, whether by force or by choice. Park and McKellar join a club that includes George Clooney, Sylvester Stallone and George Lucas.
“Director Park has always had a deep respect for his fellow writers and creators, and has consistently maintained a spirit of solidarity with them, and will continue to do so in the future,” the official added in their statement to Korean media.
The WGA has not responded to Deadline’s requests for comment seeking clarity on Park and McKellar’s expulsions — or the claims that the decision went against the jury’s proposed slap on the wrist. This is not the first time that the Board would have bucked disciplinary recommendations for 2023 strike violators, though.
In April, Guild announced disciplinary action against six members for alleged unauthorized work during the union’s 2023 strike, as well as one additional member for an alleged violation of the Guild’s constitution — three of whom appealed on the grounds that the Board disregarded the recommended punishments in favor of harsher action. In Friday’s announcement to members, the WGA also said all three appeals were denied and the Board’s decisions were upheld by the membership.
Per the WGA, “there are no further strike related disciplines and all Article X proceedings arising from the 2023 strike have concluded.”
