The head of the company that produces Outrageous Fortune and Shortland Street believes the fallout over The Hobbit has made life difficult for actors Robyn Malcolm and Jennifer Ward-Lealand, who could now struggle to find acting work.
But South Pacific Pictures chief executive John Barnett blames the unions for not keeping the actors away from the public outcry that has erupted over the possibility of losing the two films overseas.
After an international actors boycott, Warner Bros is now considering looking abroad to make The Hobbit.
Company executives have arrived in the country and are to meet producer Sir Peter Jackson and Prime Minister John Key to discuss the future of the $670 million project.
The unions had wanted to meet to negotiate the terms and conditions of the contracts for The Hobbit, but the producers declined on legal advice that collective bargaining amounted to price-fixing and was illegal.
The situation remains tense, with some in the film industry fearing a domino effect that could cripple the future of movie-making in New Zealand.
Mr Barnett said he had received a lot of feedback about Ward-Lealand and Malcolm, two members of the actors' union who had fronted the cause.
"The feedback has been quite vocal and critical of them. They've been pushed into the front row and are now earning the opprobrium of the public."
He said anyone should be free to express their views but producers would be reluctant to hire them because public perception was a huge factor in casting.
"Robyn's a terrific actress.
"However, if The Hobbit doesn't stay here, then people are going to respond negatively, and that means they're just not going to watch her.
"We don't want that for her. She doesn't deserve it.
"But the union has let them down. They should not have let her go out and speak."
Mr Barnett also criticised NZ Actors' Equity organiser Frances Walsh and said Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly, who has faced the media on the issue, was out of her depth.
Simon Whipp, director of the Australia-based Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, of which Equity is a branch, should have faced media on the issue, he said.
Malcolm's agent did not return calls, but the actor told the Sunday Star-Times she did not mind being unpopular while fighting for a good cause.
"I really believe in this stuff. I believe in workers' rights."
Ward-Lealand, who is president of Equity, said she had thought about the possible repercussions for her career.
"I think it's fair, what we asked for, so I'm hoping that people are rational enough to see that.
"I guess we'll see what the future holds.
"I'm not saying it doesn't require fortitude everybody around me is aware of that or that it hasn't been hard on me and the family, but you have to come back to the question: is it fair to ask for a meeting? And I think it's fair."
Actors' Equity has said the industrial dispute is resolved and no industrial action would take place if the films were made in New Zealand
