An actress and former president of SAG-AFTRA accused Disney CEO Bob Iger of peddling “bulls–t” after he said that the Hollywood writer’s strike was “disruptive.”
SAG-AFTRA national secretary and treasurer Joely Fisher, who is also the half sister of late ‘Star Wars’ actress Carrie Fisher, responded directly to Iger’s comments on CNN Friday. “I heard disruptive. I heard that we were uncivilized. I heard it’s been very lucrative for them and it will continue to be,” Fisher said, summarizing Iger’s recent statements about the Hollywood writers’ strike.
“It’s bulls—,” she said.
She was responding to comments that Iger made during an interview with CNBC Thursday. Disney’s CEO spoke out against the Hollywood writers’ strike, calling it “disturbing” and “disruptive.”
“It’s very disturbing to me. 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 said.
“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,” he told CNBC.
However, Iger added, “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.”
Fisher called out Iger and other executives for profiting off the hard work of actors and writers in Hollywood, arguing that executives like Iger are “making hundreds of millions of dollars” from their labor.
“They are profiting on our backs. And if we want a tiny little sliver of that ongoing, it is not unreasonable. It is not,” she said. “We make funny and sing songs and perform on a stage since the beginning of mankind and entertain you and tell stories,” Fisher added, defending the importance of entertainers in American culture.
Fisher argued that her union is not “just people screaming from ivory towers” like A-list movie stars. She also said she is representing “background artists, singers, stunt people [and] broadcasters.”
“It is righteous and it is just for us to make sure that the 160,000 people that we represent participate in a very meaningful way in the profits that you’re all enjoying on your yachts in Cannes,” Fisher said.
Laughing as the interview concluded, she added “I’ll never work again,” joking about her profane response to the Disney executive.