SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher is done babysitting studio executives amid the failed Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers negotiations that led to the current strike.
The “Nanny” TV icon told Variety that Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger’s recent comments about the SAG-AFTRA strike were “tone deaf” and only further cemented Iger’s status as a “land baron of a medieval time” with a massive wealth disparity in Hollywood. During a Thursday morning CNBC interview ahead of the official declaration of the dual-union strike, Iger called the then-possible work stoppage a “very disturbing” and “disruptive” development — especially post-COVID.
“I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch. Positively tone deaf,” Drescher said about Iger’s statement hours before the official SAG strike was announced. “I don’t think it served him well. If I were that company [Disney], I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this, because it’s so obvious that he has no clue as to what is really happening on the ground with hard-working people that don’t make anywhere near the salary he is making.”
She added, “High seven figures, eight figures, this is crazy money that they make and they don’t care if they’re land barons of a medieval time.”
To note, Iger just renewed his Disney contract as CEO through 2026. Iger made $24 million in fiscal year 2022, according to Deadline. The Walt Disney Company laid off 7,000 workers earlier this year.
While at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference, Iger called the labor strikes “very disturbing,” saying, “We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption.”
Iger added, “I understand any labor organization’s desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver. We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we’d like to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.”
The SAG-AFTRA strike, which went into effect July 14, dictates that union actors cannot promote their past, present, or future work at festivals, conventions, podcasts, panels, premieres, and more. Principal on- and off-camera work is also barred as part of the work stoppage order, as well as contract negotiations for upcoming projects. In effect, Hollywood is at a standstill for the first time since 1960, when the last dual-union strike occurred.
“What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor,” Drescher said in the SAG-AFTRA press conference announcing the strike on Thursday. “When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority, and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run, we have a problem, and we are experiencing that right at this moment. This is a very seminal hour for us. I went in in earnest thinking that we would be able to avert a strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me or our negotiating committee, or our board members, who have voted unanimously to proceed with a strike. It’s a very serious thing that impacts thousands if not millions of people all across this country and around the world.”
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