SAG-AFTRA National Board member Jay Potter blasted Bob Iger on Thursday after the Disney CEO said he is “personally committed” to quickly finding solutions to end the historic double strike.
The actor, whose credits include appearances in the 2015 film “The Big Short,” the 2013 film “The Call,” the 2008 film “Che: Part One,” and the TV series “Hap and Leonard,” told TheWrap that Iger’s latest remarks are “persiflage.”
“I think it’s bloviating words that have no traction because we’re out here and he’s not inviting us back to the table,” he said. “If [Bob Iger] was serious about making a deal, he’d be calling us and saying, ‘let’s go back, let’s have a meaningful conversation because we want to make sure that writers can earn a living and actors can earn a living’ and that there are guardrails around artificial intelligence that protect our brand, our visage, our voice, our sound, our kinesic personality, everything that we bring to the table that earns them boku bucks.”
“You want to talk? You want to make a deal? We’re ready,” Potter added. “All the unions have made it very clear from the beginning that we’re open to achieving a deal that ensures our survival. So whatever Bob Iger is saying, it’s junk words until there’s action.”
Wednesday’s comments from Iger came after he faced backlash for a CNBC interview in July from Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley Conference, in which he called the strike “very disturbing” and said the unions’ demands were “unrealistic.”
Potter also knocked Disney’s decision to raise prices for its ad-free versions of Disney+ and Hulu while removing content from the streaming platforms.
“It only speaks to their business model which is to ensure that their stockholders, that the investment folks, are their main responsibility and they’ll make those monies on the backs of performers, actors, creatives and the consumers where they’ll just jack up their premium streaming packages and try to bring the money in that way,” he said. “So they’re not really serious about serving the public, they’re interested in serving the investor class.”
Potter’s comments come as the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA have been on strike since May 2 and July 14, respectively.
He emphasized that the guilds are “facing an existential threat by which we may no longer be able to earn a living.”
“This cause is really about the worker, about labor, and when you have across multiple industries a model that rewards the exploitation of labor and paid CEOs unspeakable amounts of money and doesn’t take care of the workers and pays the shareholders, the investors, that’s just a recipe for disaster,” he argued. “The recognition that this fight that we’re having here today is also your fight tomorrow, your fight last week and your fight a year from now is really essential because this problem is systemic … it’s everybody’s fight.”
The WGA is set to resume negotiations with the Hollywood studios on Friday.
“Our committee returns to the bargaining table ready to make a fair deal, knowing the unified WGA membership stands behind us and buoyed by the ongoing support of our union allies,” the guild said in a statement.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA strike coverage, click here.
