Sarah Paulson, Star of Many Netflix Shows, Strikes Against Netflix

Members of the Screen Actors and Writers Guilds picketed outside of Netflix in Los Angeles on Tuesday in the hopes of sending an important message to the streaming giant: They think Netflix has the opportunity to lead other streaming services and studios toward reaching a deal with the writers (WGA) and actors guilds (SAG-AFTRA) since they’re also responsible for creating the current status quo.

Picketing members told Rolling Stone that over the years, while streaming services have tried to figure out the best business models on both the front and back ends, they’ve followed in Netflix’s footsteps as the leading streamer in the frontier of new media. Because of this, they also say Netflix has set a standard across the entertainment industry when it comes to issues like residual payments for actors and writers. So, striking actors and writers think the streaming service should use their power to make change in Hollywood and improve conditions for workers.

“Netflix really did start this new form of media and they do have the ability to be this historic game-changer. They could work with us to be at the forefront of this change to help their creators in the same way they were at the forefront of inventing this new form of media in the first place,” Morgana Ignis, who starred in Netflix’s 2018 series The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, told Rolling Stone outside of Netflix in Los Angeles on Tuesday. “I’m hoping they do stand by us, they stand by the people that made them a viable business in the first place, because obviously without us they have nothing.”

Ignis, who also works as a voice actor, said they haven’t seen a single dollar in residuals from working on The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell. They said they enjoyed working on the series and are happy it’s still streaming for people to see, but they’re disappointed that Netflix isn’t using their prowess in the industry to better compensate actors.

“I have all this work on my resumé that I’m very proud of, but I’m completely unable to live while acting,” Ignis explained. “I’m here at Netflix today because they still have work they are exhibiting of mine and they’re able to make money on that, yet I have not made any residual money on it since its release.”

Emmy-nominated Sarah Paulson, who stars in Netflix shows like American Horror Story, American Crime Story, and Ratched, also showed up to picket outside Netflix on Tuesday morning. Paulson declined to comment or be interviewed. Screen icon Annette Bening was present as well, along with Twilight actress Elizabeth Reaser. 

Screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, 52, was also picketing at Netflix because she thinks the streamer has played a significant role in creating the problems writers and actors are facing when it comes to streaming and residuals. Smith has a long and successful history working in Hollywood, having co-written popular films like Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted, and The House Bunny, as well as creating the 2019 Netflix series Trinkets based on her novel of the same name. She’s enjoyed working with Netflix in the past, but given where the future of the industry is going she wanted to show up to picket at Netflix and hold the company accountable.

“I think that would be great leadership if they came forward and helped stop what they started,” Smith told Rolling Stone. “Residuals are one of the main reasons I’m striking. As someone who came of age writing movies in the 2000s and then would sometimes have movies not get made, residuals are how we lived and how we survived the lean times to get to the next project.”

Smith said she was working on a romantic comedy for Amazon before the writers’ strike started on May 1. She and the other writers “raced to turn the script in” prior to the strike in hopes that the film could still go into production this summer, but all of that came to a halt. (In April 2023, Deadline reported that Amazon Studios was “in active early conversation” on a third installment in the Legally Blonde series.) Smith was also joined on Tuesday by her mom Kati who flew down to Los Angeles from Seattle to show up to Netflix in person and support her daughter and other striking writers and actors. While Smith said she feels inspired by the camaraderie of having SAG members join the WGA in picketing, she’s also worried that the longer the strike goes on for, the more talent Hollywood is likely to lose.

“I just hope that we can get a fair contract sooner than later and not have it drag through the winter because what I’m worried about are all of the talented young writers out here, and older writers, and how can we survive if this goes on all the way to the end of the year?” Smith said. “I don’t want to lose all the great talent we have to a strike, and it already feels like it’s beginning to happen.”

Jessica Lamour said she was at Netflix on Tuesday because was a writer on their series Chicago Party Aunt, which premiered in September 2021, and believes the streamer can do better when it comes to the residual payments they distribute to writers. She feels like they have a responsibility as one of the original streaming services to do the right thing as far as writers are concerned.

“Netflix has been doing this sort of the longest at this point,” Lamour told Rolling Stone. “And I feel like they have such a plethora of shows that they create that there is room to pay their talent the way that they should.”

Lamour’s friend Chivonne Michelle picketed along next to her with her toddler daughter in tow. The 35-year-old said she’s been acting since she was 19 years old and she’s seen a shift in the way residuals are doled out in a way that makes her fear for her future. How can she afford to pay for rent and daycare, Michelle wonders, if the current streaming model stays the same?

“There’s a juxtaposition from when I joined the union in 2011, when I did a guest star role in my early 20s, to what I get paid now,” Michelle said. “Back then, I was so excited to have $1,000 residual checks. It was how I could sustain a multi-year career. Now, the ones that people get from Netflix and other streamers are for ten cents, five cents.”

Twenty-three-year-old actress Gabriella Martinez told Rolling Stone she hasn’t even bothered cashing some of the residual checks she’s received because they were for “three cents, ten cents, or a mix of pennies.” Martinez, who’s appeared in grown-ish, S.W.A.T., and Young Sheldon, said she also works in childcare as a nanny so she can pay her bills because her wages have been so low. While she’s never acted in a Netflix series, she hopes they take the initiative to renegotiate contracts with actors and writers.

“They could lead this to the finish line,” Martinez said. “But they’re not even wanting to hear us out on our values, but they can’t really make content without us.”

Andi Mack cast member Luke Mullen thinks “it’s ridiculous” that actors and writers have to strike to fight for what he considers to be livable wages, especially when there’s such a big disparity between actors’ salaries and the salaries of studios’ CEOs.

“We shouldn’t have to decide whether or not to pay rent or put food on the table,” Mullen told Rolling Stone. According to Mullen, when Disney took Andi Mack off the Disney Channel and started streaming it on Disney+, the largest residual check he ever received was for $10. The actor pointed out that sometimes it costs more money for studios to mail out checks than to pay an actual residual check for a few cents here and there. 

“The industry is changing,” Mullen said, “and they have to change with us.”

Mullen, who’s also appeared in Hulu’s American Horror Stories, the Nickelodeon TV series Side Hustle, and the blockbuster of the summer Barbie, said he showed up to picket at Netflix because they’re the biggest streaming service with the most influence. 

“Netflix was on such a good path a couple years ago in the way they honored artists. This felt like the place to be for writers and actors where you can be creative and they give you the budget for it,” Mullen said. “Now they’re trying to cut costs by cutting pay for writers and the people who make them their money. I think Netflix has a very unique opportunity to lead the charge here if they listen to the demands and take a cut out of the top CEO’s pay.”