Mandy Moore has shared her own experiences with streaming residuals as she joined her fellow union members on the picket lines of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Hollywood has been effectively shut down after actors joined their fellow screenwriters in the fight for fair wages, higher streaming residuals and assurances that their jobs won’t be taken over by artificial intelligence (AI).
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter from the picket line in Los Angeles on Tuesday (18 July), Moore alleged to have only received a “very, very tiny” amount in streaming revenue from her starring role on NBC’s hit series This Is Us.
Moore, 39, starred in the Emmy-nominated family drama from 2016 to 2022. She played matriarch Rebecca across the six-season series, which followed a picture-perfect family as they go through life’s emotional ups and downs.
However, despite the show’s critical acclaim and impressive viewership ratings, leading lady Moore, who The Independent’s Nicole Vassell has argued is “secretly the best actor on TV”, said she has only made “pennies” from residual payments.
Residuals are additional compensation paid out to actors when their TV shows or movies are replayed.
“The residual issue is a huge issue,” Moore continued. “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 This Is Us is an NBC original that aired live throughout its run, the network struck a digital deal with Hulu to have it land on the streaming platform the day after each episode was broadcast.
The show has remained on Hulu ever since, yet Moore claimed she’s only received “very, very tiny checks, like 81-cent checks” in streaming residuals.
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“I was talking with my business manager who said he’s received a residual for a penny and two pennies,” she said.
The Independent has contacted Moore’s representative and NBC for comment.
Last Thursday (13 July) marked a historic shutdown for Hollywood as actors guild members joined writers striking for a fairer deal.
SAG-AFTRA (The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) announced that its membership, comprised of more than 150,000 television and movie actors, would begin striking at midnight on Friday.
“When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, we have a problem,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said in last week’s press conference. “We are being victimised by a very greedy enterprise.”
Moore joined actors including Orange Is the New Black star Kimiko Glenn, Final Destination’s Devon Sawa, Matilda child star Mara Wilson and romcom staple John Cusack in sharing negative experiences about the acting world in light of the strike.
Both SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) are in dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the production companies.
The AMPTP says it presented a deal that offered “historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members”.
“A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the organisation added. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
