Amid Hollywood strikes, South Korean actors in Netflix K-dramas push for better pay – and residual fees like their US counterparts enjoy

Netflix does not pay its K-drama actors residuals – payments made when a show is rebroadcast – and supporting actors may earn as little as US$300 per episode

After the success of shows like Squid Game and Physical 100, Netflix has upped its spending on Korean productions. But it has shunned the Korean actors’ union

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Despite the success of K-dramas like “Squid Game”, Netflix does not pay its South Korean actors residuals – and the country’s actors’ union wants that to change, and supporting actors to be paid better. Photo: Netflix

Published: 4:15am, 17 Aug 2023

When news of the Hollywood actors strike broke in mid-July, Song Chang-gon was waiting to hear back from Netflix, a company that was proving to be difficult to get a hold of.

The phone number for its South Korea office was unlisted on the usual websites, but several months earlier, Song – a 51-year-old actor and current president of the Korea Broadcasting Actors Union – had obtained the personal number of a Netflix Korea executive.

Unhappy that the company did not pay its South Korean actors residuals – a form of royalty paid to credited talent when a show is reused after the first airing – he had left several calls and text messages.

The situation struck him as absurd.

A still from “Black Knight”, a South Korean sci-fi series on Netflix. Digital twins of the main cast members were scanned for use in action scenes, but on the whole AI does not currently threaten the livelihoods of Korean actors. Photo: Netflix

Netflix has a vast presence in South Korea, yet at times it felt to him as though the company – which outsources all of its production to local studios – wielded its influence from behind a curtain.

“One of their first priorities when entering the local market should be to establish some channel of communication with groups like us,” Song says. “But there’s no answer at all.”