The WGA writers strike had already thrown a gigantic wrench into forward momentum within the entertainment industry, and the SAG-AFTRA actors strike only compounded the stalemate between creatives and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers). Various celebs have started to go public with how lackluster their residuals checks from studios are, regardless of a project’s popularity, and pointing out how impossible it would be to live off of such meager earnings. Abbott Elementary fan-favorite William Stanford Davis, who stars as the scene-stealing custodian Mr. Johnson, was one of the latest Hollywood talents to go off, and seemingly deleted a few emotional F-bombs from a social media post.
As seen below, Davis took to Instagram to join his fellow actors in calling for changes regarding actor compensation and other issues stemming in part from how massively popular streaming services have become since the last time negotiations were hammered out. And while he didn’t indicate which project this was for, his words and the low-balled number on the residuals check made it clear that identifying the project isn’t nearly as important as fixing the problems. Check out the post below:
For those unable to watch, here’s the message that William Stanford Davis laid out in the video. (Now is probably a good time to note that the actor refers to it as being for “three cents,” even though the check is very clearly for a whopping five cents, so do with that what you will.)
I am William Stanford Davis. I’ve been a screen actor for 35 years; I’ve been in the Guild about 32 years. And, um, I’ll let this speak for itself. This is a residual check. You see that? You believe that? That’s three cents. The postage, the paper, everything costs more than that. That’s what they think of us as actors. This is why we’re on strike.We’re on strike for better wages, better residuals, for a piece of the subscription, and to not give into A.I. I stand in solidarity with the writers. We’re gonna strike until we get what it is that we need to make a living as actors.
It appears as if this is a slightly skimmed down version of how William Stanford Davis originally presented the check to his social media followers, via Deadline. His original message was peppered with a couple of F-bombs, as seen below.
I showed this to my brother and he fell over laughing… it ain’t fucking funny. . . . That’s a residual check. I’m not going to say who produced it, because I can’t tell you who these cheap motherfuckers are.
It's not immediately clear why Davis clipped the F-bombs from his message, although one might imagine it was to avoid burning any bridges with others in Hollywood, where calling someone a "cheap motherfucker" probably isn't so easy to back away from. But still, even if it's gone now, the anger behind those words is still present and accounted for in the post above, even if it's been tamped down.
Grey’s Anatomy producer and now-former series regular Ellen Pompeo took aim at Netflix for its failure to deliver just and logical residual payments for shows streaming on its platform, from its library or originals to its licensed collection including some of TV’s most popular series (such as the aforementioned medical drama). And that was right after This Is Us star Mandy Moore shared that she gets “very tiny, like 81-cent checks,” despite the show still being a popular streaming entry for those with Hulu subscriptions.
It’s obviously hard to know if any of these insightful posts and messages tied to residuals will help push things in the right direction as far as negotiations are concerned, or if they’ll just be incidental to whatever conclusion comes from it. While waiting to see how things play out, head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see what’s still on the way.
