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I wonder if they’ll use that old line, “It’s not you, it’s me. I’m under pressure to trim my list.” Or perhaps, “You’ll be better off at a smaller agency, I promise…” In any case, get anxious if you’re an Endeavor or William Morris actor or writer, and you get a call from your agent this week or next that starts with a long sigh. Because chances are likely you’re about to get cut from the newly merged WME Entertainment. It’s not a surprise that clients who are not working or deemed not right for the new company will be laid off. Cuz you can’t fire 100 people and keep the same number of clients. The purging is part of WME’s philisophy that it only wants to represent the “Top 2%” of Hollywood talent. So if you survive, congrats. You’ve officially made it in Hollywood.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Didn’t WMA just sign the Koji truck? Do they fall into the top 2% category?
what about a prestige actor who only works in indi films? I guess they’d get cut too?
“Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
It always makes me laugh to hear people suggest that agents or managers are able to “lay off” the people they represent as if the writers and actors work for their representatives. Sure they can dump clients or stop representing them but they can’t fire them or lay them off. Creatives work for the studios, producers or networks that hire them and pay their salary/quote. Last I checked there wasn’t an agent anywhere reaching into his or her own coffer to employ a client.
hmmm. then I say “Welcome to the other 98%” : )
Why does Hollywood talent let agencies dictate to them and run the biz? Am I asking a naive question?
As a working and very well-employed client of WM, I have to say, I’m not sure that the top 2% of Hollywood would want to be repped by WME. This doesn’t seem to be an agency that puts the clients first. I’ve been shocked by what has gone down this last month. Am starting to take meetings with other agencies. There has to be a better run agency out there.
Do they even call? That would be awfully civilized for an agent.
If you want the top 2% why would you bother with WMA then?
jeez Nikke… thanks for telling me to be anxious.
i already need to up my dosage of xanax.
show biz is such good times.
its about time.. off with the old, on with the new.. get rid of the clients who bring nothing but constantly expect praise and glory for a project they created 10 years ago that nobody even remembers.. wake up.
Quite happily, the apparent CAA vibe is “market share market share market share”.
So if Ari/Adam/Patrick have cut you lose why not give rich or bry a call?
WME is now Wal Mart Entertainment, they’re massive in size and yet somehow they spout the Endeavor line about repping only the top two percent? Methinks they need a course or two in remedial math.
my agent said they are clearing out the “fluff and the duffs.” i guess the latter part he meant literally. i’m happy to still be a client though.
This type of trimming happens after every agency merger.
After the WMA/Triad merger it spun off enough working and quality talent and agents to spawn 3-4 boutique agencies like ACME was.
It’s just opportunity knocking for agents AND talent if your aggressive.
Chum in the water.
Let the feeding begin.
Comment by michael dobrofsky — May 27, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
Because they’re God, and hear voices in their head.
Or because people like Nikki call this ‘layoffs’.
I hear their vo clients regularly wait 2 hours for auditions. Real organized. Endeavor is absorbing them. WMA was so 20th century anyway.
Mr. Dobrofsky,
Your question is far from naive.
The day to day machinations of “Hollywood” are based on a representative model where actors, writers and directors are concerned. Agents serve as proxies in behalf of their clients and, as a result, amass tremendous influence over the information that floats between the buyers and the talent since they are the primary funnel through which this data flows.
I don’t know about writers or directors, but actors are discouraged, if not downright vilified, for attempting to act in their own behalf in securing work. In fact, I recall being roundly ignored by a casting director, as I sat in the lobby waiting to read for a cable network legal drama — which, by the way, is still on the air — because I had the unmitigated gall to call the showrunner’s office to ask for an audition.
The fact that I’d worked with the showrunner, in a role that was created for me, on a previously canceled show was irrelevant. The fact that I was agent-less was immaterial. I had not adhered to protocol, which is: Thou shalt not seek to procure thy own employment. I have not been asked to audition for her since and, truth be told, could give a fuck! I’m 38 years old and will not ask for anyone’s permission to put food on my table and keep a roof over my bald head.
Speaking as an actor, I know my tribe pretty darn well. Most actors, who are fortunate enough to work, are loath to rock boats and challenge their reps, or anyone else for that matter, when bullshit appears on the horizon. You can’t lounge at Bacara on proverbial unemployment checks. In contrast to entrepreneurs who, for the most part, can systematically re-build after they’ve lost everything, successful actors feel they’ve won the lottery and, as such, don’t want to risk losing all that they’ve gained.
That is why agencies can “dictate and run the biz”, Mr. Dobrofsky. They have been given a tacit license by their employers, the talent.
T.E. Russell
PS — Agents catch a lot of heat on this blog but they’re being handed smegma sandwiches, by the powers that be, just like everyone else. I’ve been repped by the likes of Paul Kohner, Innovative and Paradigm and while I wouldn’t piss on some of the people at those firms if their buttocks were overran with fire ants, I’ve found the majority of the agents at those companies, and others, are decent, hardworking people trying to do right by their clients. The same goes for the assistants and the folk in the mailroom.
Be Well, Everyone and GOD Bless.;-)
If they drop me, it’ll be the first phone call I’ve had from them in years!
CofFer–Agents drop clients all the time. Either you’re too subscribed to cynicism or just don’t understand that perspective, but it isn’t anything rare.
Working Client–I believe they call that panic. Why wouldn’t clients want to be repped by an agency that is trimming all the fat so that they can put their best foot forward on behalf of their clientele?
Look at any major agency and you’ll find innumerable clients that, frankly, don’t have any business being represented where they are. This merger is simply the impetus to remove those from the picture. Is it business? Yes, absolutely. Is it insincere? Categorically, no. Agents are furious and devastated that they have to drop clients who they’ve represented for years and in whom they truly believe (cue subsequent commentary suggesting agents have no feelings, yawn).
This isn’t easy for either side, but this is the mission statement, and leadership intends to see that through so that the business model will have its best, most efficient opportunity for success. Agents in the highest echelons will be losing people.
The depth of resentment for agents and agencies in general, particularly on these boards, incessantly impresses me. From the perspective of someone within that world, such sentiments feel like bitterness towards having genuinely rotten representation (which does exist, no one can deny) or people just adding fuel to the fire. I don’t know any agents who see their clients as financial conduits. They see them as people, they want what is genuinely best for them, and they are content to enjoy the reflected success of careers built. If your representation is that brutal, why don’t you change ships? Take meetings until you meet someone who doesn’t stink of bullshit? It really isn’t nearly as difficult to find a decent person as your agent.
You want something to criticize? Talk about the new logo.
Surely clients will have nothing to worry about if they’re paying their way?
Tick Tock,
As someone who was represented by this agency for more than a decade, who works and isn’t the top earner yet, the tone of your posting is exactly the problem. The affectation is infuriating. And beyond affectation, you’re simply full of shit.
For the most part, the agents at WMA don’t grow talent, will impatiently service projects/deals that don’t meet their short term expectations, betray the right client for the job for other clients/agents in the building who are wrong for the job but earn more.
It’s laughable. From the independent division to television to motion picture, what the hell do they do? I know of a project that languished in Independent for years until CAA got hold of it. (More than one actually.) And what movies has that division put together of any merit?
Another interesting fact about the culture is unless you’re making major bank (in which case you’re being courted constantly by other agencies), other agents won’t touch you because you’re with XXX at XXXX and no one wants to invite the confrontation. If you go with a new agent, your new agent will be the focus of XXXX looking to poach clients from them.
They’re actually quite adept at poaching clients. Because, after all, it’s the path of least resistance. Incoming call business only.
There’s no bitterness here, simply a reality check. No illusions of grandeur, just years of experience with WMA bullshit.
It’s no wonder so many talented people don’t want to go through agents. They complicate things, they tell you not to do the movie that garners awards. They encourage you to do Meet Dave.
So, Tick Tock, go back to the Havana Club and tell your buddies you did your best to defend them, but it looks like it’s gonna be Don Diego and not Monte Christo for a while. (They won’t taste the difference anyway).
What about the kids dept and their 200 clients? will Ari put up with that.?
I think Bonnie and Thor will fair better with 10 clients each. They seem to do their best one on one
Wow, with their new identity, I’d think it would be the talent that were jumping ship. One of the worst branding jobs I’ve ever seen. Bad enough ‘concept’, the execution – appalling!
Well, I see it this way… as agents quit or are let go, they’ll be opening new agencies. Agents taking with them years of experience a large list of contacts. That will open more opportunities for their current clients and open the doors to new clients that otherwise couldn’t make it into WM or Endeavor… as the world turns, and turns, and turns.