Why did you do that?
That’s the question many in Hollywood have been asking since Bob Iger’s infamous July 13 CNBC interview in bucolic Sun Valley.
What made Igger choose such a place and time to express his “disappointment” with the demands of the striking talent guilds? Not only was he at the meeting known as the “billionaire camp,” but just a day before, Disney announced that his contract was being extended until 2026, meaning his estimated net worth ($690 million in 2019, according to Forbes) would grow by millions.
The strike issue was completely predictable and so easy to deflect: “I’m not going to discuss an ongoing labor dispute, but I hope we can reach a fair settlement soon and get back to creating top-notch entertainment.” Something like that.
Instead, Iger expressed frustration that guilds don’t understand the issues facing the industry. “There’s a level of expectation that they have that’s just not realistic,” he said. “And they add to the set of challenges that this business is already facing that, frankly, are very disruptive.”
It is possible that Iger believed that he could play the role of a gentle, respected father of the family whose words could punish the guilds. “Bob no doubt thought about when to speak and what to say,” says a Disney veteran. “Maybe he felt he had to put it out there.” Still, this person admits that Iger turned out to have chosen a poor backdrop.
A few days later, SAG-AFTRA’s Fran Drescher fired back, using the kind of dismissive language Iger had hardly heard before. “He’s sitting in his designer clothes, just off his private jet in the billionaire camp, telling us we’re being unrealistic,” she said. “How do you deal with someone like that who is so deaf? Are you ignorant?’
By then, the waters had already turned rough for Iger, who acknowledged in the CNBC interview that Disney’s many challenges were greater than he anticipated when he returned as CEO in November. A longtime associate says, “He’s never experienced this level of stress in his career.”
Even before Iger sat down in front of the cameras, there was a wave of negative press the likes of which he had never experienced before. On the day his contract extension was announced, leaving him basking in the congratulations of camping billionaires, Wall Street Journal published an article that not only highlighted the daunting problems facing Disney, but ominously stated that Iger’s “grace period” with investors was “apparently over.” Just eight months into Iger’s second term, it must have seemed like a very unwelcome dose of impatience on Wall Street.
By then, Iger should also have been aware of a longer piece coming to the game Journal the next day. Noting that Disney’s CEO is “straining to put out fire after fire,” the article said Iger personally blames Bob Chapek for some of the company’s problems. But the article traces some of Disney’s biggest challenges to “decisions made by Iger during his first stint in the top job, from 2005 to the early 2020s, including the 2019 acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets and his decision to enter an arms race over streaming.” Now, Iger’s hero phase has been revisited in a paper that literally has Wall Street in its name.
And it didn’t stop there. The article used the phrase “deaf” in reference to Iger a full four days before Drescher got there. It mentions that Iger has been criticized in some quarters for showing up at the Met Gala and NBA arenas while Disney is cutting staff by the thousands. The report even noted the Marie Antoinette detail that he was showing a model of the new, larger yacht in the works.
No one would like that kind of coverage. Given Iger’s thin skin, he might be the person who would like it the least. One source who knows Iger well saw his comments about guilds in the CNBC interview as “angry and self-pitying.”
Iger built Disney to greatness largely through a series of acquisitions: Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox (which may have been a bridge too far). Now he had to put a sign on the possible sale of certain Disney assets, including ABC, the place that launched his career. Then he had to struggle to explain to the people who worked in those divisions that he really valued their input. (CNN reported Iger’s awkward attempt to make amends at an off-site meeting on July 18.)
“These are raw, highly emotional times,” says a longtime associate of Iger’s. “He just laid off 7,000 people. He is not a cold, callous, cruel person. it is difficult He is forced [dissident shareholders] Nelson Peltz and Ike Perlmutter to do this deep cleaning of people. He was forced to reduce the content. None of those things are fun.”
Acknowledging recent missteps, this guy isn’t ready to declare Iger, the sequel, hopelessly flawed. “Never underestimate Bob Iger,” he says. “He can still have a transformative move. Bob is a craftsman. While some may wonder if he has lost a step, others may think he is six moves ahead.”