Disney’s Haunted Mansion premiere used theme park characters in place of the film’s actors for the first red-carpet event since the SAG-AFTRA strike.
As reported by Variety, the Haunted Mansion world premiere went ahead without its stars, leaving a gaggle of Disney characters to stroll the red carpet instead.
The fictional character Cruella de Vil has arrived at the #HauntedMansion premiere in Disneyland. https://t.co/ozgw9lMm8J pic.twitter.com/kKnSzCsH1j
— Variety (@Variety) July 16, 2023
“It’s so sad and disappointing,” said director Justin Simien. “But I’m not disappointed in this cast. I’m disappointed in the conditions that have brought about this situation and, look… their works speaks for itself in this movie but I really wanted to speak for them, too.”
Under the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, guild members are prevented from undertaking any promotional activity for their work, including red-carpet premieres. That means Haunted Mansion stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Daniel Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Marilu Henner, and Lindsay Lamb, were not expected to attend. However, Disney decided to roll out the red carpet regardless. It’s thought Disney would have lost revenue from corporate sponsors if the world premiere event did not go ahead.
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse have arrived at the #HauntedMansion premiere in Disneyland -- the first major carpet to take place since SAG-AFTRA voted to issue a strike Thursday. https://t.co/ozgw9lMm8J pic.twitter.com/tMkYTHFIZe
— Variety (@Variety) July 16, 2023
The two-hour red-carpet event marked the first major studio premiere since the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 13 and offers a haunting look at what we can expect in the coming months. There are no cast interviews, no photo calls, just a sad lineup of costumed characters in place of the usual Hollywood glitz and glamour.
Quite how other studios will tackle their upcoming world premieres remains to be seen. After all, most other studios don’t have a hundred-year animated legacy to lean on when it comes to replacing its actors for these events.
The rather sad-looking premiere comes just days after Disney CEO Bob Iger slammed the SAG-AFTRA and WGA writers’ strike as having "not realistic" expectations.
“It’s very disturbing to me,” he said about the strikes. “We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption.”
“I understand any labor organization’s desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver,” he added. “We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we’d like to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.”
Haunted Mansion’s own director responded that he would like to talk to Bob Iger about his comments.
“I would really love to sit down with him and talk,” he told Variety. “I don’t know if how he meant it is how it felt to me… I would love to talk to him about it.”
“Let me tell you about ‘unrealistic’,” he added. “Me being a filmmaker is unrealistic. Coming from Houston, Texas, gay, black, that’s unrealistic. And what made me believe I could do that and so many things is watching these movies with these beautiful protagonists that could chase these unrealistic dreams and to see the journey that it took them to get there.
"So many artists believe in that dream and contribute to these movies. I would love to talk to him about the reality that we all face as artists to make the impossible happen every day.”
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
