One of the staff writers of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Cody Ziglar, has clapped back at Disney CEO, Bob Iger, for his low salary amid the writers’ strike.
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the ongoing Hollywood strikes, negotiations broke down between both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and most recently the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). This has resulted in a pair of strikes among two of the biggest unions in Hollywood.
For just over two months now, the WGA has been on strike and has affected several film and TV productions including Blade, Thunderbolts, Yellowjackets, and The Penguin. SAG-AFTRA began their strike Friday, July 14. Both unions could not reach an agreement with the studios with a divide on new contracts for residuals and the major concerns of the use of A.I. replacing artists.
With the strikes unfolding, many actors and writers have taken to social media to call out the studios and draw attention to just how little they’re being paid by the studios.
She-Hulk writer calls our Bob Iger
Disney boss Bob Iger has a lot of problems on his hands, but the lack of profits isn’t one of them. It’s a legacy that he wants to leave behind in the long run as Iger made quite a civic yet deceptive statement on CNBC’s Squawk Box. He debated that both actors and writers involved in the strike action were not “realistic.” Iger explained:
"“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.”“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.”"
While Iger’s last statement may win the rounds in PR and within the diplomat arena, this did not stop Emmy-nominated writer, director, and podcaster Cody Ziglar, from bringing his receipts as Ziglar exposed that he only got paid a shocking $396 from residuals from one of the episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law he penned.
He wrote the eighth episode of Attorney at Law “Ribbit and Rip It” arguably one of the most watched episodes of television on .
On social media, many users commented on Ziglar’s tweet post and were appalled. While we don’t have the numbers right in front of us, I could categorically say that aside from the third episode that had Megan Thee Stallion make a cameo and the sixth episode being one of the funniest, according to Nielsen Media Research, the episode Ziglar wrote had a 13.6% increase from the previous week making Attorney at Law the seventh most-watched original series of that week.
Do you think Bob Iger’s statements were fair? How do you think Cody Ziglar should be compensated? Any care about the actors and writer’s strike? Sound off in the comments!