Stroking egos with one hand and stoking insecurity with the other

My former life as an agent in Hollywood can be summed up in one sentence

Stroking egos with one hand and stoking insecurity with the other

One certainty in a business of uncertainty is that talent usually lives in a state of panic, wondering where their next job is coming from, and if their agent is working hard enough for them. That makes both talent and dealmakers ripe for "poaching".

"You'll be working with a director who'll say, ‘You should meet my agent.' If the agent is any good, he's read all your scripts and can talk about where your career should be going. It's hard not to be impressed, particularly if you feel like your agent is traveling the path of least resistance and booking you into the same kind of film jobs over and over. You want the person responsible for your living to be willing to lay in front of traffic for you."

Small wonder that agents are ripe for cardiac arrest and sleepless nights. Even in failure, clients will almost never blame themselves for futility, not when there's an agent within easy reach who can be tossed under the bus.

One dealmaker recalls being fired by an actor client who was reeling after a flop. Even though the actor acknowledged his agents advised him to avoid the pic, he says that he had to look at himself every morning in the mirror, and he wasn't going to blame that guy. And it had to be somebody's fault.

And you all thought my life was film festivals, red carpets, and movie premieres.

Read: Agents Scrambled By Poaching.

Related:
Hollywood Elementary
Hollywood Confidential
My Life As A BizBabe
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