Disney has been involved in a very public lawsuit the past few months with actress Scarlett Johansson.
Johansson, who played Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sued the company over their release of her film Black Widow simultaneously in movie theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access, saying that it was a violation of her contract. The two parties have gone back and forth in recent weeks, with representatives speaking out from both sides, and today Disney CEO Bob Chapek had some more comments to share about how Disney compensates its talent.
At today’s Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference, Bob Chapek was asked about how the company compensates Hollywood talent, especially with the traditional model being changed thanks to the pandemic. Chapek noted first that “Disney has had a long history of having very symbiotic and cooperative deals with the talent and we will continue to.”
He recalled that the deals with actors whose movies are being released currently were made three and four years ago, during “a moment of time where films were envisioned under one understanding about what the world would be because frankly, it hadn’t changed much.” He spoke to the fact that the films are being released in a pandemic when the industry is attempting to adapt and change to fit current circumstances. Chapek said, “So, we’re sort of putting a square peg in a round hole right now where we’ve got a deal conceived under a certain set of conditions, that actually results in a movie that is being released in a completely different set of conditions.”
In the future, Disney has plans to take these considerations into account when making talent deals, but “right now we have this sort of middle position, where we’re trying to do right by the talent, I think the talent is trying to do right by us, and we’re just figuring out our way to bridge the gap.” He ended by noting that “we believe our talent is our most important asset.”
We’ll make sure to keep you up to date with any more news on this situation, so stay tuned to DFB. We’ve got all the latest Disney information to share!
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Have you been following along with this lawsuit? Let us know in the comments!
Pete says
So he talked out of his butt again and almost gave away the lawsuit. Not that their own actions with their latest slate of movies didn’t already do that.
Megan says
It really upset me when Disney tried to make Scarlett look like she didn’t care that people had to stay home due to the pandemic. Of course she cared. Disney just wanted to release it and not compensate her for the release of the movie being in theaters and streaming. How is that fair to her? In normal times, it would be released in theaters and then streaming, but we are not in normal times. For ANY studio releasing movies this way going forward, they have to compensate actors for theater and streaming as they are released.
She asked them numerous times to re-write the contract and they ghosted her. Scarlett isn’t the bad guy here!
I’m with Scarlett on this one. Disney is a billion dollar company. They thought that because she’s a woman that she would just accept what they were giving her. No man in their right mind would accept this crap and I’m glad she’s standing her ground. They breached the contract and they owe her!