“It’s a Company Built Around a Talking Mouse”: Director Mocks Iger’s Anti-Strike Comments

We have already heard impassioned statements from many actors regarding Disney CEO Bob Iger’s remarks about the writers’ strike — and now an influential Disney director has joined in, just days after his Disney movie’s premiere!

Dear White People…and Bob Iger

When the Hollywood Reporter asked Justin Simien about Disney CEO Bob Iger and his now-infamous remarks about the ongoing WGA writers’ strike, the Haunted Mansion director and Dear White People creator had a lot to say.

“What is your take on Bob Iger’s comments?” Mikey O’Connell asked Simien during their interview for the Hollywood Reporter.

Bob Iger’s “Unfortunate” Comment

“Really unfortunate,” Simien began. “I’ve never met him. I have this fantasy that we’ll sit down and have a very civil conversation about how what he said went over in the artist community.”

Simien then couldn’t seem to resist expanding on the subject of Bob Iger’s remarks about the strike being unrealistic.

“I just keep going back to the irony,” he said pointedly. “It’s a company built around a talking mouse. Unrealistic is kind of y’all’s thing.”

“It just sucks that his words don’t align with the reality that we’ve all faced,” the director (who attended his Haunted Mansion movie alone after A-list actors from the film, such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Owen Wilson, failed to appear) continued.

“It’s a terrible feeling to try to make art to give people a sense of escapism when you are in a constant state of trauma. We need to pay our bills and not feel as if we’re in constant economic strife,” the Dear White People creator explained.

We have seen many actors sharing their shockingly-small residual checks from Disney — with some being as low as $0 — as the WGA strike continues.

Simien added during this interview that he was close to being evicted from his home, even though Dear White People was a success!

Time to Throw More Shade

“What’s so unrealistic is that a system built like that can just keep going and going and going and not exhaust itself. We’re exhausted,” Simien said, circling back to Bob Iger’s controversial response to the writers’ strike.

Simien also seemed to throw some additional shade at Disney in the same interview, when he referenced his exit from Disney’s show Lando and cited his race and sexual orientation as potential factors in Disney’s decision about his involvement.