Mandy Moore Exposes Negligible This Is Us Streaming Residuals
This is Us star Mandy Moore revealed she received residual checks from as little as a penny to 81 cents from the series’ streaming deal with Hulu.
Amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike combatting studios and streaming services, Moore opened up about the importance of residuals for actors. “The residual issue is a huge issue,” stated Moore, who was at the Disney protest in Burbank, California, with her previous Scandal co-star Katie Lowes. “We’re in incredibly fortunate positions as working actors having been on shows that found tremendous success in one way or another … but many actors in our position for years before us were able to live off of residuals or at least pay their bills.”
While the SAG-AFTRA strike has just started to pick up momentum, with actors from the cast of Oppenheimer leaving their premiere, the WGA strike is on its twelfth week of protesting. The SAG-AFTRA union represents over 160,000 performers responsible for bringing television and film productions to life. The union claims the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing major companies like Disney, refused their proposal to compensate actors for revenue earned from streaming services.
Although casts collect residuals from series re-airing on broadcast networks, streaming services are becoming increasingly popular among viewers. Additionally, broadcast networks have opted to air year-round original series instead of repeats for reduced-cost unscripted content. Fewer reruns pose significant problems for both writers and actors, who would benefit significantly from streaming residuals.
Lowes explained the shift in the industry, “If you are someone who has been fortunate enough in our positions to do 120-plus episodes of a successful show in previous years — 10, 15, 20 years ago — that re-airing would be the thing that could sustain you on years where I did this smaller project or I wanted to go do a play or you have kids and you have a family to provide for. And that just not a reality anymore. The entire model has changed.”
Furthermore, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA alike, grapple with the lack of streaming honesty from major services. Netflix, Apple, Disney, and Amazon are popular streaming services that do not report standard viewership data. But as awareness of the strike grows, actors and writers hope that major studios will finally listen to their demands for fair pay.
