‘Orange Is the New Black’ star Kimiko Glenn reveals details of cast’s low pay: ‘We couldn’t afford cabs’
By Bryan Ke
Kimiko Glenn recently revealed that she and her “Orange Is the New Black” co-stars couldn’t afford cabs and had to keep their second jobs while working on the hit Netflix show.
What happened: Glenn, 34, first revealed in a TikTok video posted over two years that she only received $27.30 in foreign residuals in December 2020. In the 11-second clip, the “Kiff” voice actor notably shows a foreign royalty statement from the labor union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists).
Glenn appeared in 44 episodes of “OITNB” as Brook Soso, a talkative former inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary.
Payment issue resurfacing: The issue of low residuals was reignited after Glenn and several other cast members of their Netflix show spoke to The New Yorker earlier this month about their experiences after the series ended on July 26, 2019.
The article was notably published right before SAG-AFTRA began its strike on Friday due to an ongoing labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Well-deserved compensation: In a TikTok video posted on Saturday, Glenn addressed the comments her 2020 TikTok video previously received.
“Whether or not we got paid upfront — my tits live on in perpetuity. I deserve to get paid for as many f*cking streams as that sh*t gets,” she says in her video. “Second of all — we did not get paid very well. Ever. And when I say, ‘Did not get paid very well,’ you would die.”
“People were bartenders still,” she continues. “People had their second jobs still. They were f*cking famous as sh*t, 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, you guys.”
Her earnings: While Glenn was paid $900 per day of shooting for “Orange,” she explained in an Instagram post on Friday that a lot of the money she earned went to taxes and commission, leaving her with around $450 for one day of shooting. She also noted that a day of shooting “happened about twice every two weeks.”
“Assuming you work four days a month – we’re talking $1,800 for a month’s work, and you live in New York City. That doesn’t make rent,” she wrote.
Also, once we started getting paid a little more, we started getting taxed as if we made that episodic rate in one day, often taking away 55% of our paycheck. 20% for agent/manager commissions. Some people had lawyers (5%), business managers (5%), some people had to pay publicists $2-6k/month no guarantee for any press coverage. There’s a lot of misplaced outrage in these comments. $900 for one day of shooting is epically low for someone who is recurring on a hit television show, where they are contractually obligated to stay available 6 months out of the year.
Shining a light on the issue: In another Instagram post, Glenn clarified that her aim was not to “out” the show, saying, “The problem was, we were the first of its kind. So everyone was sort of learning as they went. Now it’s been 10 years and SAG still hasn’t really stepped up to the plate and created a deal in which it’s protecting its actors and properly compensating their actors. It’s only good business for streamers to not pay if they don’t have to. The fight really is to negotiate a great deal.”
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