Bob Iger recently responded to criticisms that Disney has become “woke,” a term that he believes most people don’t even understand anymore.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter following his proxy battle win, Iger was asked about criticisms from many that Disney has gone “woke” in its messaging and film. Iger said that “the term woke is thrown around rather liberally, no pun intended in that regard. I think a lot of people don’t even understand really what it means.”
However, Iger did go on to note that the company’s first priority should always be to entertain, and that they aren’t “up to” infusing messages into things as a number one priority.
“I think the noise is sort of quieted down. I’ve been preaching this for a long time at the company before I left and since I came back then our number one goal is to entertain,” Iger said. “The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world whether it’s you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.”
Iger wants Disney to be “entertainment first company”
The Disney CEO went on to say that the company has to be an “entertainment first” company, while still looking to reach a diverse audience.
“But generally speaking, we need to be an entertainment first company…And understanding that look, we’re trying to reach a very, very diverse audience,” said Iger. “And on one hand in order to do that, what you do, the stories you tell, have to really reflect the audience that you’re trying to reach, but that audience because they are so diverse, really, first and foremost, they want to be entertained, and sometimes they can’t be turned off by certain things. And we just have to be more sensitive to the interest of a broad audience. It’s not easy, you know, so that we can’t please everybody all the time, right?”
