Amazon Studios is considering a vaccine mandate for the U.S. productions of their properties, according to an exclusive from Deadline. Executives from Amazon as well as the heads of the studios currently working on series for the streaming platform are in discussions about mandating that actors, and those who come in contact with them on set, must be vaccinated.
According to Deadline, it will require everyone working in Zone A, which is "the actors and those working in close proximity to them, to get vaccinated" and that there would be rare exceptions, "largely based on disability or religious beliefs," made. It's a move to protect not only those working on these sets, but also the studios themselves from having to constantly shut down productions due to COVID-19.
Hollywood unions and major studios had an agreed-upon return-to-work protocol set up already that would grant producers “the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis." Amazon Studios is not the first to put this idea out there, as Netflix is also requiring all actors to get COVID vaccinations on all U.S. productions.
For the most part, studios have been playing it by ear and deciding as they go, but this blanket statement for all actors and those in Zone A is a step in the right direction towards protecting those on set and keeping production going while cases surge in the United States, despite vaccines being readily available. Hollywood, for the most part, has adopted a way of filming while in a bubble and keeping their sets safe, but requiring vaccine is just that added layer of protection.
Hopefully, Amazon Studios make this decision official and more studios follow suit. It's important to keep these sets safe and production underway. With both Amazon Studios and Netflix joining in, it's hopefully only a matter of time before other studios also join suit.