2Disney’s Most Acclaimed Show Writer Lives Below Poverty Line, Bashes Bob Iger’
‘The Bear’ Writer Calls Studio Executives “Vile” and “Disgusting”
One of the writers of the universally acclaimed Disney-Hulu series The Bear is bashing the behavior of major studios during the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes, calling them “sick, vile, and disgusting.”
Credit: Hulu
Alex O’Keefe is a staff writer on The Bear, the Chicago-set culinary comedy-drama on Hulu (which is owned by the Walt Disney Company), and is currently striking for better wages and worker protections, along with the rest of the WGA.
“We need to come together and co-determine the future of our industry, but what they’re [studio executives] are saying is ‘get the hell out of our office,'” says O’Keefe, who also says that he lived below the poverty line (per The New York Post) while working on The Bear, a show that has been breaking streaming viewership records for the Disney-owned platform left and right and has perfect Critics scores for both of its two seasons.
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However, because the show is streamed rather than broadcast on traditional TV (also known as linear TV), TV writers on The Bear and other programs do not receive any residuals or extra payments for the success of the show.
“That’s a huge injustice,” Alex O’Keefe said. “As a staff writer, you’re writing and revising for everyone but there’s no residuals on Hulu [or Disney+] because it’s streaming.”
Credit: Inside the Magic
His statements come in the wake of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s inflammatory comments describing the strike as “very disturbing,” and that “We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges that we’re facing and 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.”
Infamously, Bob Iger called WGA strikers “unrealistic” and said that they were adding “challenges that this business is already facing that is quite frankly very disruptive and dangerous.”
While Iger did not explicitly state that he was against writers receiving residuals or payments for streaming TV, it is surely not coincidental that the Disney CEO seems eager to cut ties to linear TV altogether, which would essentially stop payments to writers for shows that they worked on all together.
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Alex O’Keefe also commented on reports that Disney and other major production companies are planning to try to wait out striking writers and actors, hoping to cause them to lose their homes and become so impoverished that they are forced to come back to work on the studios’ terms.
“They publicly say it’s a necessary evil,” O’Keefe said. “They publicly say they are evil, so what do you think they say privately at the bargaining table?”
Do you think Disney should try to bargain with the strikers? Give us your opinions in the comments below.