With the ongoing actors’ strike, American actor David John Fielding, who portrayed the iconic Zordon in the first season of the 1993 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, recently revealed that he didn’t receive much appreciation from the media agency as the actor was only paid $150 a day for his acting and received less than $1000 for the entire show.
Fielding has opened up about his unpleasant experience during the filming of the show when the news on the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike popped out — with many actors supporting the movement including Vanessa Hudgens, Melissa McCarthy, George Clooney, and more. The Screen Actors Guild strike is a response to the diminishing importance of actors’ performance in the industry due to the unfair system.
As a real-life example, the actor-slash-writer revealed that he only went to work once in MMPR and received less than two hundred bucks, but the footage with his face appeared in every episode of the series. He then expressed his sentiments on Twitter and called out studios and employers who like taking advantage of their employees.
“What’s being broadcast over and over and over is that studios/owners/employers do not want to have to pay for labor. They want employees, they want to reap the benefits, but they don’t want to pay for it,” the statement reads.
Shortly after, the actor tweeted again to share the exact amount of money he received after filming the billion-dollar show.
I made less than $1000 on the show as a whole. It was non-union, so no residuals. I got paid $150 for the day I filmed and they made a billion dollars the first year. But that's fair, right?
— DJFielding (Zordon) 🐳 (@DavidJFielding) July 14, 2023
“I made less than $1000 on the show as a whole. It was non-union, so no residuals. I got paid $150 for the day I filmed and they made a billion dollars the first year. But that’s fair, right?”, he said.
Some Twitter users flocked to the comment section to give their sympathy for the actor:
That is INSANE. Man I had no idea!!!! I figured you were set with all the money that show made! I remember when it first came out we couldn’t find a figure or Zord to save our lives! People were fighting in parking lots over them!
— Chad Lumpkin (@Buckwild4Christ) July 14, 2023
truly sorry that happened to you. Thanks for making a part of my child hood very cool.
— Rick / OopsAllSetite (@OopsAllSetite) July 18, 2023
Ugh I’m sorry you were taken advantage of
— 💥⚡️Morphin Mac⚡️💥 (@manny0088) July 15, 2023
Oh, I was legit confused and unaware… sorry…
— Cindy Ruth Helms (@flyingsinger123) July 14, 2023
No not fair
— Lisa (@kagayakistuff24) July 14, 2023
However, Fielding replied to these comments and said that he wasn’t affected by this issue anymore. Instead, he just considered it as a “life lesson for others and that might be for the best”.
To clear things up, he said that he’s not holding any grudges against anyone, however; this kind of treatment, especially to not-so-popular actors, is considered a norm in the showbiz world.
“I do not begrudge anyone or anything about being a part of MMPR. The more important point is that this kind of thing still happens & is normalized,” he explained.
As of today, actors are fighting for contracts to block AI from replacing them and to seek better pay when filming shows and movies for streaming platforms.
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