SAG Strike: Sean Gunn Speaks Out About Lackluster Residuals From Gilmore Girls' Long Netflix Tenure

As of this writing, not just one but two of Hollywood's most powerful labor unions are on strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been busy picketing Hollywood's major studios ever since May 2, and as of this past Friday, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has officially joined them. The current, historic double strike is the result of several months' worth of ultimately fruitless negotiations SAG-AFTRA and the WGA each participated in with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to try and create new, fair labor contracts for their respective members.

The WGA and SAG are on strike for their own reasons, most of which don't overlap due simply to the two unions' different responsibilities. However, there are several key issues that both the WGA and SAG have spotlighted this summer, including their shared desire to try and fix the pay deficit between streaming and broadcast residuals, which has decimated a primary source of income for most entry and mid-level writers and actors. As "Guardians of the Galaxy" star Sean Gunn has recently noted, said deficit has largely prevented actors from participating in the financial success of any of their shows that happen to do well on streaming platforms.

While picketing outside Netflix's Los Angeles offices alongside numerous other writers and actors on Friday, Gunn told The Hollywood Reporter in a now-deleted interview, "I was on a television show called 'Gilmore Girls' for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix. 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."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sean Gunn's picket line interview was deleted due to a factual error. The actor addressed not only said "error" in a recent Twitter video but also further explained his stance on Netflix's lackluster approach to profit-sharing. In doing so, Gunn has touched on how the emergence of streaming platforms like Netflix has seriously upset the economic structure that had once ensured that acting, writing, and directing could be viable, full-time careers — even for artists who aren't A-listers. Now, thanks to the much lower residuals provided by streaming companies and the lack of data transparency on the side of those same corporations, it's become incredibly hard for Hollywood's everyday workers to reap the long-term rewards of their labor.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the entertainment industry's CEOs currently have any interest in compromising with SAG and the WGA. As a matter of fact, in a Deadline article published on July 11, several anonymous producers claimed that the AMPTP's plan is to "break the WGA" by waiting until the union's members have lost their homes to resume talks with them. The AMPTP later disavowed the anonymous comments and claimed they did not reflect its attitude toward its negotiations with the WGA, which have stalled for over two months.

However, the same day SAG announced its strike, Disney CEO Bob Iger publicly condemned the union's actions, as well as the WGA's. "It's very disturbing to me," the executive told CNBC. "There's a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic." Suffice it to say, Iger's comments were not received well by striking WGA and SAG members.

The same day he was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, former "Gilmore Girls" star Sean Gunn offered a fiery response to Bob Iger's comments about SAG and the WGA's double strike. "I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame [this strike] is, he needs to remember that in 1980 CEOs like him made 30x what their lowest worker was making. Now, Bob Iger makes 400x what his lowest worker [does]," Gunn told the Associated Press. "I think that's a f****** shame, Bob."

Gunn isn't the only high-profile SAG member who has had an understandably negative response to Iger's CNBC interview. In a conversation with Variety, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher shared her thoughts on Iger's comments, confessing, "I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch." Drescher added, "I don't think it served him well. 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."

Iger's condemnation of the strikes, as well as the public responses he's received, have made the divide between Hollywood's workers and its CEOs abundantly clear. How long it will take for that divide to close is the question that's on everyone's mind right now. If Gunn, Drescher, and their fellow workers have made one thing clear, though, it's that they're not willing to back down from their demands. They feel a responsibility to their co-workers that Iger and his fellow CEOs clearly don't. As much as it may frustrate certain anonymous producers, SAG and the WGA's shared resolve doesn't seem like it'll break anytime soon, if ever.

What's at stake is, frankly, too high.