Striking ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Actor Robert Carradine Reveals a $0.00 Residual Check Is a Thing
Lizzie McGuire alum Robert Carradine brought receipts in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike — and revealed that residual checks can total zero dollars.
“Why we’re striking …,” Carradine, 69, wrote via Instagram on Friday, July 28, alongside a check he received in August 2019 for “$0.00.”
The payment for “Zero and No/100 Dollars” was issued by Walt Disney Pictures’ Disney Worldwide Services Inc., seemingly confirming that it was for Carradine’s work on Lizzie McGuire.
Carradine portrayed Lizzie McGuire’s (Hilary Duff) dad, Sam McGuire, on the Disney Channel series from 2001 to 2004 for a total of 65 episodes — plus his role in 2003’s The Lizzie McGuire Movie. (The actor also starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie Mom’s Got a Date With a Vampire and Disney’s Max Keeble’s Big Move.)
“PERFECT,” Jamie Lee Curtis wrote in the comments, applauding Carradine for bringing receipts amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
Several fans showed outrage on Friday over the non-residuals. One user quipped, “$0 for the greatest Disney dad of all time? That’s brutal,” while a second follower commented, “Why in the heck would they mail a check for $0?!? You were the greatest, you don’t deserve that! Makes me so mad ??.”
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been picketing since May against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for labor disputes. SAG-AFTRA joined the fight in July, fighting for better wages and streaming residuals, and protection against the use of AI technology.
While Carradine’s check bombshell is shocking to some, two of his former Lizzie McGuire costars previously talked about how their residuals have diminished over the years.
“I do [get checks] and they’re always, like, it’ll be like an overseas video or something. And it’s like $3.50,” Davida Williams said during a March episode of her and Jake Thomas’ “Living Lizzie a Very McGuire podcast.”
Williams, who played head cheerleader and one of Lizzie's enemies, Claire Miller, from 2001 to 2003, revealed: “Sometimes I don’t even hit a $1.”
Thomas — who had a bigger role on the Disney show as Lizzie’s pesky brother, Matt McGuire — noted that times have changed for TV actors.
“It used to be, like, you’d have to take this huge stack of check every month for residuals over to the bank and deposit them,” the 33-year-old star recalled on the podcast. “But the huge stack would be like, ‘Oh, this is a massive stack. This is $8.’”
The minimal — if any — residuals checks are just one of the reasons actors are striking, and the former cast of Lizzie McGuire have been on the picket lines.
Thomas joined the Disney strike on June 13 in support of the WGA and shared a witty sign from his pal Taylor Friedman which read: “Reboot Fair Pay + Lizzie McGuire!”
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Duff, meanwhile, was spotted picketing outside Paramount Pictures on July 17. “Out there ?? with my girls. We stand with our union! Let’s gooooooo,” the 35-year-old actress captioned a series of Instagram snaps from the scene.
