Kimiko Glenn, who played Soso on Orange Is the New Black, is echoing what many actors have said about their compensation in the streaming era. Or, rather, the lack of compensation. Elaborating on the New Yorker story on the pay discrepancies on OITNB, Glenn said many of the actors on the show weren’t paid well enough to quit their side hustles. “People were bartenders still. People had their second jobs still,†she said on TikTok. “They were fucking famous as shit, like internationally famous, couldn’t go outside, but had to keep their second jobs because they couldn’t afford to not. We couldn’t afford cabs to set.â€
@itskimiko @The New Yorker released an article the other day describing many of our cast’s experience on #orangeisthenewblack and the details will astound you. go to my IG for the link 💕💕 #sagaftra #sagaftrastrike #sagstrike #sagaftrastrong
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Glenn also commented on the need for streamers to figure out some sort of compensation for how often her work gets watched and rewatched on the service. “My tits live on in perpetuity. I deserve to get paid for as many fucking streams as that shit gets,†she said. Glenn’s words parallel things Sean Gunn said on the Netflix picket line Friday. “I also particularly wanted to come out and protest Netflix,†Gunn told The Hollywood Reporter in a since-deleted video. “I was on a television show called Gilmore Girls for a long time that has brought in massive profits for Netflix. It has been one of their most popular shows for a very long time, over a decade. It gets streamed over and over and over again, and I see almost none of the revenue that comes into that.†The tweet that housed that video was deleted, allegedly because “it did not note that the residuals Gunn was referencing are paid by the studio and not the streamer, Netflix,†per THR. Gunn responded to that tweet with one of his own. “The whole point of my interview is that Netflix doesn’t pay residuals to the actors,†Gunn said, “so there’s no sharing in the success of a show with Netflix.â€
Update 7:55 p.m: Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs actor Jana Schmieding added her voice to the conversation by posting screenshots of her last quarter’s residuals. For acting on Reservation Dogs, she received three cents. For starring in Rutherford Falls, $33.