Disney CEO Bob Chapek has spoken out to share his visions for the multi-million dollar company. However, when set against the backdrop of the ongoing lawsuit between Disney and Scarlett Johansson, fans were not happy with the comments made.
Chapek utilized his time at Goldman Sachs’ 30th Annual Communacopia Conference to speak out on the subject of the nature of Disney’s contracts with their actors. According to Deadline, Chapek was asked about "the compensation of Hollywood talent in the wake of long-standing distribution models being upended." He responded to this by indirectly addressing the Scarlett Johansson lawsuit and defending Disney.
Chapek answered, “Disney has had a long history of having very symbiotic and cooperative deals with the talent and we will continue to. Certainly, the world is changing, and the talent deals going forward will have to reflect the fact that the world is changing.”
Chapek then continued by highlighting how films that had been made prior to the pandemic, had been released at the peak of COVID. He stated that due to the pandemic, “consumer behavior” had changed. He then added that therefore, what Disney had been left with was a “deal conceived under a certain set of conditions, that actually results in a movie that is being released in a completely different set of conditions.”
Chapek rounded off his speech by highlighting how, regardless of this, Disney’s actors remained their highest priority. He stated, “Ultimately we believe our talent is our most important asset, and we’ll continue to believe that, and as we always have, we’ll compensate them fairly per the terms of the contract that they agreed to us with.”
Following the conference, fans and viewers alike, took to Twitter to express their disdain at Chapek’s comments. Branding him a “villain," many believed that Chapek’s use of the word “asset” in regards to talent was reflective of a corporate mindset.
For example, one Twitter user wrote, “‘Talent’ is not Disney's most important asset. The talent belongs to the person gifted with it. That's one slang use of the word I absolutely detest. And the talent does not belong to Disney, in either definition.”
Whilst another mentioned, “Talent is so important to Disney that they didn’t think twice before maligning ScarJo (of course after financially screwing her over). This must be Beauty and the Beast, (the horror version). Maybe they will send this tale to their streaming service too.”
Another fan called out Chapek for lying about holding Disney’s “talent” in such high regard. They claimed that the comment had only been intended towards Disney’s actors as many other branches of Disney’s “talent” had been ignored and neglected.
They stated, “Sure sure. Tell that to the talent that works in EVERY DEPARTMENT in the Parks.”