Furious stars turn on Disney CEO amid Hollywood strike

With Hollywood in chaos, some big names are focusing their frustrations on one of the industry’s most powerful people.

With Hollywood at a standstill due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, some big stars are making their voices heard – and speaking out against one of the industry’s most powerful men, Disney CEO Bob Iger.

The strike has seen some 160,000 film and television actors join members of the Writers Guild of America who are already on the picket lines, in what is the first joint walkout between the two unions since 1960.

Members of both unions are demanding increases in pay and residuals to reflect the streaming TV landscape, plus guarantees they will not be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).

Disney CEO Iger said in an interview last week that the two unions are not being “realistic” with their demands.

Former The Nanny star and now SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called Iger’s remarks “repugnant” over the weekend.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher slams Bob Iger's "repugnant" strike remarks: "If I were that company, 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." https://t.co/UacRrD06I4pic.twitter.com/B7PpBMPAJn

— Variety (@Variety) July 14, 2023

“I found [his comments] terribly repugnant and out of touch. Positively tone deaf. If I were that company, 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 hardworking people who don’t make anywhere near the salary that he’s making. High seven figures, eight figures – this is crazy money that they’re making.”

Hellboy action star Ron Perlman delivered a particularly heated message via a video on social media, at first taking aim at an anonymous source quoted in Deadline who said that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) plan to let the strike continue until union members start losing their homes.

Disney CEO is the target of several stars’ ire. Picture: AFP

Fran Drescher called his comments “repugnant.” Picture: Getty

“The motherf**ker who said we’re gonna keep this thing going until people start losing their houses and their apartments.”

“Listen to me motherf**ker,” he continued. “There’s a lot of ways to lose your house. Some of it is financial, some of it is karma, and some of it is just figuring out who the f**k said that. And we know who said that and where he f**king lives.”

As Perlman continued, it appeared he was referencing Iger, who has made headlines in the past for his $27m annual salary.

“There’s a lot of ways to lose your house,” he added. “You wish that on people, you wish that their families starve, while you’re making 27 f**king million dollars a year for creating nothing? Be careful, motherf**ker. Be really careful, cause that’s the kind of shit that stirs s**t up. Peace out.”

Ron Perlman speaks out on social media.

Actor Sean Gunn on the picket lines.

Another actor, Gilmore Girls and Guardians of the Galaxy star Sean Gunn, blasted Iger during an interview from the picket line over the weekend. He was responding to Iger’s recent comments that the strike's’s potential effect on the economy “is really a shame.

“I think when Bob Iger talks about, ‘What a shame it is,’ he needs to remember that in the 1980s, CEOs like him made 30 times more than what the lowest worker was making,” Gunn said.

“Now Bob Iger makes 400 times what his lowest worker is, and I think that’s a f**ing shame, Bob.”

“Maybe you should take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’ and not only why is that, is it okay? Is it morally okay? Is it ethically okay that you make much more than your lowest worker?”

Gunn also joined former cast members from the show Orange is The New Black in speaking about how little payment actors can get from appearing in a hit Netflix series.

“I was on a television show called Gilmore Girls for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix,” he said.

“It has been one of their most popular shows for a very long time, over a decade. It gets streamed over and over and over again, and I see almost none of the revenue that comes into that.”

Numerous supporting cast members from Orange Is The New Black went public in an article published by the New Yorker last week, revealing they had to keep their day jobs during the show and receive virtually no residual payments, despite the show being one of Netflix’s biggest-ever series.

Originally published as Furious stars turn on Disney CEO amid Hollywood strike