Breaking Bad is one of television’s most popular TV shows, but series star Aaron Paul is not taking home residual checks from Netflix, where the show is streaming in the US. Appearing on the picket line outside Sony Pictures Studio recently, The Independent reports that Paul said streaming companies now need to “pony up.”
“I don’t get a piece from Netflix on Breaking Bad to be totally honest and that’s insane to me,” Paul, who plays Jesse Pinkman, said. “I think a lot of these streamers know that they have been getting away with not paying people a fair wage and now it’s time to pony up.”
Sony Pictures owns the rights to Breaking Bad and Netflix paid the company a fee–presumably a massive fee given the popularity of the show–to stream it in the US. The show originally aired on AMC and has seen multiple extensions of the universe. A prequel series called Better Call Saul followed the shady lawyer Saul Goodman and Paul came back to appear in a small cameo. Paul also reprised his character for the Netflix movie El Camino, which takes place after the events of Breaking Bad.