7 big things we learned about Bob Iger’s Vanity Fair New Establishment interview
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger sat down with Nick Bilton, special correspondent with Vanity Fair, during Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Conference on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017.
Iger will be leaving the company in mid-2019.
The half hour discussion touched on a number of subjects from from politics, to gun violence, to the company’s future, to riding attractions to Star Wars.
Here’s what we learned:
1. Politicians need to talk about gun violence: In light of the shooting massacre in Las Vegas, Iger believes we need to hold our politicians accountable for doing something about gun violence. He said that everyone should be outraged at the mass shootings and that we spend time debating about people not standing for the national anthem, but not about gun violence. And the time talk about gun violence is now.
2. All employees are key to theme park safety: Keeping guest safe is of the utmost importance at the various theme parks. The company is constantly reviewing its security measures and have a force of uniformed and non-uniformed in the parks as well as a large networks of cameras. One important component is the housekeeping staff. If the staff doesn’t have access to room for a long period of time or they believe there are some problems they put up a red flag and that has helped deal with issues in the past.
3. Why he didn’t fire Jemele Hill: ESPN anchor Jemele Hill called President Trump a white supremacist on Twitter. The White House called for Hill to be fired. Iger said he got involved and there was a need to take the statement into full context. “I’ve never experience racism,” he said. “I felt we need to take into account what people were feeling in this time and that resulted in not taking actions.”
The promise that was given in the Constitution, that was fought for in the Civil War and civil rights movement is the opposite of what Americans have seen in the last few months.
4. He rides attractions while in testing mode: Iger gets on the rides before any of the civilians. “I ride them and look back and all the other seats are taken by sandbags.”
6. Premium films for a premium experience: Big budget movies will remain in theaters: Yes, Disney will be moving all of its movies and TV shows over the next few years to an app, but the premium films will first come out in theaters, there will no premium movies on demand the same day they come out in theaters.
7. He was part of the discussion to kill off Han Solo: Iger said that when Disney and Lucasfilm first started working with J.J. Abrams on The Force Awakens one of the concerns was balancing legacy with innovation. He said Disney, Marvel and Star Wars ave huge legacies which need to be taken into account, but there is always a need to innovate and move forward. There is a need to balance everything with the element of the story. “We had a big debate about Han Solo,” Iger said. “Should he die or not? It was a decision made by Kennedy and Abrams, but I got involved.”
