Stephen Ford used a paltry paycheck to explain why he is picketing for better pay during the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“Living the good life on those teen wolf residuals,” the actor, 33, tweeted on Saturday, August 12, alongside a photo of his residual check, which had been sent to him three months prior. The actor earns 5 cents every time a rerun of an episode of the MTV series in which he appeared airs.
Ford was credited (as Stephen Lunsford) in nine episodes during season 2 of Teen Wolf for his role as Matt Daehler. He also appeared in TV shows including Private Practice, Switched at Birth, Victorious, Zoey 101, Desperate Housewives and Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. Ford has since pivoted to directing movies including Kiru.
SAG-AFTRA formally initiated a strike last month after failing to reach an agreement on contract terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (The AMPTP represents networks, studios and streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony.)
Ford is not the only actor who has shared their pay stubs to bolster the case union members are making for better pay. William Stanford Davis, who plays Mr. Johnson on Abbott Elementary, previously took to social media to show his $0.05 paycheck from an undisclosed TV show.
“I’ve been a screen actor for 35 years. I’ve been in the guild about 32 years and I’ll let this speak for itself,” Davis, 72, said in a July Instagram video. “You see that? Can you believe that? That’s [five] cents,” he added. “The postage, the paper, everything costs more than that. That’s what they think of us as actors. This is why we’re on strike for better wages, for better residuals [and] for a piece of the subscription and to not give in to AI.”
Mandy Moore revealed she received checks for pennies following reruns of her Emmy-nominated drama, This Is Us.
“Ours is a fickle industry and in my 20+ years of being a performer, my career has ebbed and flowed. I’ve had very lean years where I couldn’t get a job and those are precisely the moments when in years past, actors could rely on residuals from their past work to help them get by,” Moore, 39, wrote via her Instagram in July. “The world and business have changed and I’m hoping we can find a meaningful solution moving forward.”
She added: “The trickle-down effect felt across so many industries is already devastating. I am one person — a tiny part of our guild — and while I am happy to use whatever platform my past jobs have given me to speak to issues affecting my fellow @sagaftra family, I know my experience is my own. Here’s hoping we get a fair contract soon so we can get back to doing the jobs we all love and miss so much.”
