Tens of thousands of Hollywood actors will go on strike at 0700 GMT on Friday as they join writers in the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) issued a strike order after talks with studios on their demands over dwindling pay and the threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI) ended without a deal.

“This is a moment of history, a moment of truth – if we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines and big business.” said SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher.

Writers have already spent 11 weeks protesting outside the headquarters of the likes of Disney and Netflix after their similar demands were not met.

SAG-AFTRA represents some 160,000 actors. The union said in a statement that actors’ pay had been “severely eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem,” and warned that “artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions.”

While Disney CEO Bob Iger on Thursday told CNBC the actors’ and writers’ expectations were “not realistic,” calling the decision to strike “very disturbing.”