Stars of Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul, Bryan Cranston, and Jesse Plemons recently reunited at the picket line to call out streaming services. Paul, who played Jesse Pinkman, revealed that he receives no revenue from Netflix for Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad initially aired on AMC. When the show reached its fourth season, it became available on Netflix. Now, the whole series is available to watch on the streaming service.
Despite this, Paul told The Independent, “I don’t get a piece from Netflix on Breaking Bad to be totally honest and that’s insane to me”. He continued, “I think a lot of these streamers know that they have been getting away with not paying people a fair wage, and now it’s time to pony up”.
Cranston and Plemons joined him on the picket line outside of Sony Pictures Studios, the production company behind Breaking Bad. Plemons stated: “The way things were structured 10 years ago made a lot of sense and it made more possible for journeymen-type actors, actors in the middle that are working just as a hard or harder”.
Cranston maintained that they weren’t making Sony the enemy: “They are not villains. These are people that we all will be working with once again at some point.” Rather, they just want them “to see reality and fairness and come back to the table”.
The SAG-AFTRA strike has now been ongoing since Friday, July 14th, 2023, aiming to reform issues such as streaming residuals and the increasing presence of artificial intelligence.
Several other actors have spoken out about the lack of residual payouts with the rise of streaming, including This Is Us star Mandy Moore, who told The Hollywood Reporter that her business manager had previously received residuals for “a penny and two pennies”.
