Why Did Bob Iger Speak Out Against the Striking Talent Guilds?
That’s the question many in Hollywood have asked in the wake of Bob Iger’s now-infamous July 13 interview with CNBC in bucolic Sun Valley. What possessed Iger to pick such a place and time to express his “disappointment” with the demands of the striking talent guilds? Not only was he at the gathering known as “billionaires’ camp,” but just the day before, Disney announced that his contract was being extended to 2026, meaning his estimated net worth ($690 million in 2019, according to Forbes) was going to go up millions.
A question about the strike was completely predictable, and so easy to deflect: “I won’t discuss an ongoing labor dispute, but I hope we reach a fair settlement soon and get back to making top-notch entertainment.” Something like that. Instead, Iger expressed frustration that the guilds were not, in his view, grasping the problems facing the industry. “There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic,” he said. “And they are adding to the set of challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.”
It’s possible Iger believed he could play the role of an affectionate, well-regarded paterfamilias whose words might chasten the guilds. “Bob no doubt thought through when to speak and what to say,” says a Disney veteran. “Maybe he felt he had to put it out there.” Yet this person concedes that Iger wound up choosing a poor backdrop.
Related Post
A few days later, SAG-AFTRA’s Fran Drescher struck back using the kind of disparaging language that Iger can hardly have heard before. “There he is sitting in his designer clothes, just got off his private jet at the billionaires’ camp, telling us we’re unrealistic,” she said. “How do you deal with someone like that who’s so tone-deaf? Are you an ignoramus?”
By then, the waters had already gotten rough for Iger, who acknowledged in the CNBC interview that the many challenges facing Disney were greater than he had anticipated when he returned as CEO in November. Says a longtime associate: “He has never felt this level of stress in his career.”
Even before Iger sat down in front of the cameras, there was a wave of negative press the likes of which he has never faced before. The day his contract extension was announced, positioning him to bask in the congratulations of the billionaire campers, the Wall Street Journal ran an article that not only highlighted the daunting troubles that Disney faces but stated ominously that Iger’s “grace period” with investors was “clearly over.” Just eight months into Iger’s second tenure, that must have seemed like a very unwelcome dose of Wall Street impatience.
By then, Iger had to also be aware of a longer piece coming in the Journal the next day. Noting that the Disney CEO was “straining to put out fire after fire,” the piece said Iger privately blamed Bob Chapek for some of the company’s problems. But the article traced some of Disney’s biggest challenges to “decisions Iger made during his first stint in the top job, from 2005 to early 2020, including the 2019 acquisition of Fox entertainment assets and his decision to enter an arms race over streaming.” Now Iger’s hero phase was being re-examined in the paper that literally has Wall Street in its name.
And it didn’t stop there. The article used the phrase “tone deaf” in reference to Iger a full four days before Drescher got there. It mentioned that Iger had been criticized in some quarters for showing up at the Met Gala and courtside at NBA games while Disney was slashing staff by the thousands. The report even noted the Marie Antoinette detail that he had been showing off a model of the new, bigger yacht that he has in the works.
No one would like this kind of coverage. Given Iger’s thin skin, he might be the person who would like it least. One source who knows Iger well saw his comments about the guilds in the CNBC interview as “angry and self-pitying.”
Iger built Disney into greatness in large part through a series of acquisitions: Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Fox (which may have been a bridge too far). Now he has had to put a possibly-for-sale sign on certain Disney assets, including ABC, the place that launched his career. Then he had to scramble to explain to the people who work in those divisions that he really values their contributions.
“These are raw, highly emotional times,” says a longtime Iger associate. “He has just laid off 7,000 people. He’s not a cold, callous, cruel guy. That’s hard. He’s gotten forced by [dissident shareholders] Nelson Peltz and Ike Perlmutter to do this deep-cleaning of people. He’s been forced to cut content. None of these things is fun.”
Acknowledging recent missteps, this person isn’t ready to declare Iger, the sequel, hopelessly off track. “Never underestimate Bob Iger,” he says. “He could still have a transformational move. Bob is a master. While some may wonder if he’s lost a step, others may think he’s six moves ahead.”
