Disney Is The Reason Actors Will Keep Striking?
While the major studios are planning on allowing the striking WGA to go hungry and lose their homes before they’re willing to pick up negotiations again, with SAG-AFTRA now joining the picket lines, it could be the studios who find themselves begging for reconciliation before all is said and done. With Disney being one of the biggest names in the biz, housing universes like Marvel and Star Wars, they’re set up to lose big time but that didn’t stop CEO Bob Iger from sticking his foot in his mouth several times in the last week alone.
Disney CEO Bob Iger sat down with CNBC and went on a rant about how the demands of both unions were simply too high and out of the reach for what studios will give in to
According to The Hollywood Reporter, those both in and out of the entertainment biz are as angry as can be with the leader of the House of Mouse following his ongoing problematic statements about the workers on strike.
It all started earlier this month on July 13 when the Disney CEO sat down with CNBC and went on a rant about how the demands of both unions were simply too high and out of the reach for what studios will give in to. The comments were delivered while he was attending what’s known as “billionaires camp” in Sun Valley which only further added to the bad look cast upon Bob Iger.
Not to mention, not even 24 hours prior, Disney revealed that the CEO’s contract would be extended to 2026 which points to his net worth of $690 million rocketing at least an extra million or two.
Out of touch and certainly not making any friends with those striking, Bob Iger’s words couldn’t have come at a worse time as the studios are making headlines for paying pennies in residuals to cast members of hit shows including Orange is the New Black and This Is Us.
Those both in and out of the entertainment biz are as angry as can be with the leader of the House of Mouse
But, the Disney exec’s comments didn’t slow down there as he continued to say that what the unions were asking for was “just not realistic” and that it was, in fact, their fault that these “challenges” exist.
Only further fueling the fire that both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have been burning with over the past few weeks and months, the former’s leader, Fran Drescher, had some words of her own for the Disney CEO. Slamming Bob Iger for wearing his “designer clothes” and taking his “private jet” to the billionaires get together, she was shocked and appalled that he dared to call the unions “unrealistic,” criticizing him as “tone-deaf” and “an ignoramus.”
Out of touch and certainly not making any friends with those striking, Bob Iger’s words couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Although Disney and other studios are currently talking a big game, only time will tell if they’ll be able to keep up their side of the strike and refuse to balk at simple asks of fair wages, residuals, and limits on the use of artificial intelligence from the people who made them a success in the first place.
With shows like Andor, Chucky, and Interview With the Vampire, and movies like Deadpool 3, Wicked, Mortal Kombat 2, Mission: Impossible 8, Beetlejuice 2, Gladiator 2, Venom 3, and Juror #2 put on ice, it’s only a matter of time until the studios begin to feel the penny pinch in their own pockets.
As for Bob Iger, with the Disney exec facing a major fall from grace, his wordy misstep could cost him the respect that he’s so accustomed to having from those that he’s worked with over the last few decades.
