“She-Hulk” star Tatiana Maslany went viral during the SAG-AFTRA strike last year when she called out Disney CEO Bob Iger for being “completely out of touch” due to his controversial comments about the Hollywood work stoppage. That “She-Hulk” was a Disney-backed Marvel series streaming on Disney+ only drew more heightened attention to her Iger call out.
“In those moments, you’re so heated up,” Maslany now told The Independent months later when asked about her decision to publicly criticize Iger. “It’s hard to articulate yourself in a way that you want when you’re on the picket line with everybody.”
Maslany was on the SAG-AFTRA picket line in New York City last July when The Hollywood Reporter asked her about Iger’s comments. She responded: “I think he’s completely out of touch. He’s completely out of touch with the workers who make his shows happen, who make people watch these shows, who bring viewers to him and him money.”
Iger ignited backlash during the Hollywood strikes during a July 13 interview with CNBC’s David Faber from the Sun Valley Conference, where he went on record saying WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikers were not being “realistic” with their demands.
“It’s very disturbing to me,” Iger said when asked about the labor strikes. “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 continued, “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. 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.”
Iger drew widespread scorn from the industry due to his comments. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher railed against him in an interview with Variety.
“I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch. Positively tone deaf. I don’t think it served him well,” Drescher said when asked about Iger’s comments. “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 on the ground with hard working people that don’t make anywhere near the salary he is making. High seven figures, eight figures, this is crazy money that they make, and they don’t care if they’re land barons of a medieval time.”
Disney and Marvel had not announced a second season of Maslany’s “She-Hulk,” nor has she announced when she might pop up again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.