Yeah, bitches! Picket lines! Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul was part of the cast reunion last week. But Paul, Bryan Cranston and more weren’t in character but rather gathered in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike, marching with their fellow actors.
Speaking with ET Canada, Paul – who played Jesse Pinkman to three Emmy Awards – revealed that he has yet to earn any residuals from Netflix over the show. “I don’t get a piece from Netflix on Breaking Bad, if we’re being totally honest, and that’s insane to me. Shows live forever on these streamers, and it goes through waves. I just saw the other day that Breaking Bad was trending on Netflix. It’s such common sense. I think a lot of these streamers, they know that they have been getting away with not paying people just fair wage, and now it’s time to pony up. And that’s just one of the things that we’re fighting for.” Still, Paul remains optimistic, saying, “We’re not going anywhere so they gotta do something!”
On earning money long after any given show concludes, co-star Jesse Plemons, who began playing Todd in the final season of Breaking Bad, made the point that mid-level actors who used to rely on residuals no longer have that luxury. Let’s just hope they don’t have to start peddling Blue Sky to make ends meet…
While outside of Sony Pictures, lead Bryan Cranston – who won a record-tying four Emmys for his work on Breaking Bad – maintained that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is “not villains, these are people that we all will be working with once again at some point. We just want them to see reality.” He added, “The AMPTP is focused on making a lot of money by way of our art. We want to make a lot of art and hopefully some money at it.” Cranston went on to blast the utilization of artificial intelligence, which he says is a threat to society and the industry. AI has been one of the main negotiating points of the SAG-AFTRA strike, which is now 50+ days strong.
The Breaking Bad reunion is just the latest of its kind, coming off of ones for The West Wing and Parks and Recreation, complete with L’il Sebastian!
How long do you expect the SAG-AFTRA strike to continue? Who do you see truly winning out in the end?