On July 14, the Screen Actors Guild — one of Hollywood’s largest unions — announced that its more than 160,000 members were going on strike. The strike began after SAG and the AMPTP — Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — failed to negotiate a new contract. The strike would last for months, practically putting Hollywood on pause, until an agreement was finally made in November.
Just one day before the actors hit the picket lines, Disney CEO Bob Iger sat down for an interview while he attended what’s known as Billionaire’s Summer Camp. During the interview, Iger said that some of SAG’s demands were not “realistic.”
Iger immediately faced a ton of backlash for his SAG/AFTRA strike comments, with many people calling him out of touch. One of those people was The Nanny star, and SAG President, Fran Drescher. Drescher called Iger out for the fact that he sails around the world on a private yacht and makes an estimated $78,000 per day.
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In an interview with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Drescher said that she couldn’t believe Iger’s comments. She said that “he stuck his foot in it so bad” that other Hollywood CEOs were not commenting on the strike. She also asked if Iger was an “ignoramus.”
Well, Iger reportedly heard those comments and was not happy about it. Drescher recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the negotiations went, and she admitted that Iger “didn’t appreciate” what she said:
In a sideline conversation, not with me, he did express that he didn’t appreciate the attitude that I had taken with regards to him. He regretted saying what he said. But having said that, he didn’t feel [my remarks were] necessary. Well, of course he didn’t feel that it was necessary, but it was necessary. Because what he said and what I said in my speech bookended what this whole thing was about in such a vivid way that it had to be underscored.
Several issues caused the SAG/AFTRA strike to drag on, mainly revolving around streaming, residuals, and the use of artificial intelligence.
Since streaming has skyrocketed in the past few years, there were not many contracts in the entertainment industry that addressed it. Actors wanted the studios to be more transparent about their streaming numbers, so they could be properly paid.
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Another big problem was agreeing on residuals. Every time a film or television show is re-aired or streamed, the actors are supposed to make some money. However, because the studios were not being transparent about streaming, actors felt that they were not getting paid what they should be.
Actors began going public with their residual checks, with one Disney actor showing a check for zero dollars.
Then, there’s artificial intelligence. According to SAG leaders, actors would be paid a minimal amount and then their image could be used for the rest of time. They wanted to be paid more if a studio wanted to use an artificially created image of the actor.
Though things were not looking good for a while, things finally ended in early November. The new contract was voted on and approved by SAG members in early December.
Do you think Ms. Drescher’s comments about Bob Iger were warranted? Let us know in the comments!
