EXCLUSIVE: Cobra Kai producer Zack Arnold warns Hollywood strike will quickly lose public support because ‘fat cats and writers’ have become its public faces – rather than blue collar workers who are lifeblood of the industry

Hollywood’s ‘fat cat actors’ have been slammed for destroying the ‘working man’ optics of the SAG strikes currently grinding the industry to a halt.

Zack Arnold, the producer of Netflix hit Cobra Kai, said support for the strikes may be short lived if it becomes led by multimillionaire A-listers.

‘If you look at the pulse of middle America right now, they’re saying I could care less about all these fat cat actors and writers,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘(Blue-collar workers) are the most detrimentally affected and the optics have to change,’ he added, feeling negotiations will hinge on whether it appears they are only fighting so that ‘the top 1% of writers and actors are making more money.’

His remarks come after the actor’s union SAG-AFTRA announced Thursday that it would strike alongside screenwriters for the first time in six decades, after negotiations broke down in a row over wages, streaming services, and the advancement of artificial intelligence in the industry.

The move is expected to make the picket lines must-see attractions as Hollywood stars join the ranks, with the dueling ex-lovers Jason Sudeikis and Olivia Wilde both lending their support Friday in New York City.

There are fears the Hollywood strikes could quickly lose support, in part because of the risk they pose to numerous blockbusters currently in production.

And Arnold noted that a lack of public support could soon be an issue in the movement if everyday people see it as a fight for celebrity’s bank balances.

‘I think the challenge right now for both the writers and the actors is one of optics,’ he said.

‘It’s how do we how do we make sure that the narrative is actually about the vast majority of people, in both of these unions, that really are middle class and are struggling to make a basic living doing what they’ve been trained to do.’

The producer said it would be a mistake to ‘put faces on this fight that are very well-known multimillionaires’, because most people don’t realize the industry is mostly made up of working-class people.

‘They are the ones that are being the most detrimentally affected and the optics have to change to make sure that we really know this is a fight for the everyman,’ he said.

Among the famous faces who have joined the picket lines this week includes Jason Sudeikis, Zoe Kazan, Olivia Wilde and Paul Dano.

But the inclusion of actors like Sudeikis – who recently landed a $1 million per episode deal for the upcoming season of Ted Lasso – may do more harm than good.

‘I think the writers and actors also need to be very careful about the faces that are spreading the word,’ said Arnold.

‘If you take somebody like Matt Damon, who has been very supportive of everybody in both of these industries, I think everything that he’s saying is correct… but if it’s only coming from Matt Damon the message gets lost in the messenger.’

The strikes have erupted at a time when Americans have been battling high inflation and economic woes for several years during and following the pandemic.

And the Tinsel Town producer said this could play into how the strikes are received, because people naturally aren’t likely to ‘jump on board and help’ multimillionaires.

‘If it becomes about individuals that are struggling to make a basic living… that’s where I think the universal support and solidarity really starts to grow.’

One of the principal issues behind the strikes is the abundance of streaming services in the industry, which many feel undercuts the wages of those behind the scenes.

Arnold’s Cobra Kai show was a hit on Netflix and rose to its top 10 global rankings, but he lamented the lost revenue if it had been picked up on cable TV.

‘The amount of money that the residuals would have gone through to the actors and all the below the line people involved would have been astronomically higher than it was,’ he added.

‘Whereas essentially because of the streaming model, all of the success, the entire pie of success that was garnered by Cobra Kai, all goes to Netflix and all the Netflix executives.

‘But those that created the story and made all the creative contributions collaboratively to design the success of this series, nobody reaps the benefits of that.’

His remarks come after SAG-AFRA union president Fran Drescher admitted that the strikes are fueled in part by fears actors could be replaced by robots.

Talking to the Hollywood Reporter after a press conference Thursday, Drescher added that ominous technology is one of the key reasons behind the strike, because ‘the digital age is cannibalizing us.’

Drescher was likely referring to powerful new technology that can ‘de-age’ actors – with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny recently using the software to make its star Harrison Ford look 40 years younger.

It has been feared the same tech could be used to replace human actors completely.

Drescher also slammed Hollywood bigwigs for failing to negotiate, saying at a news conference after the strikes were announced that she was ‘shocked’ by how the industry was being treated.

‘How far apart we are on so many things,’ she said.

‘How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.’