Actor Chris Cooper Leaves Paradigm After Decade

COMMENTS (16)

• We need to get this meeting. He was good in American Beauty.

  Comment by APA employee — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 2:52pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Dear APA employee — dude your “thought we’d get a meeting” line wasn’t funny the first time and it ain’t getting any funnier as you post the same thing EVERY SINGLE FVCKING TIME a story runs about an agency change. Just get over it. Please. You’re like a kid laughing at a fart for the 5,000th time. Except at least a fart was funny the first time.

    Comment by HW — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 4:48pm PST  Reply to this post

• Look what we did for Pacino’s career. Let’s get Chris, do the same for him, so he can leave us for CAA. I love doing the grunt work for the bigger agencies!

  Comment by ICM Agent — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 3:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• Is it just a given that once certain level agencies like Paradigm, APA and Innovative build talent to a level of success that these clients will just eventually leave? You know that CAA and WME are working overtime to poach their most prestigious and successful clients. In the last eighteen months Paradigm has lost Jessica Chastain (CAA), Philip Seymour Hoffman and now Chris Cooper (CAA?). Shailene Woodley is next.

  Comment by The Deelio — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 3:20pm PST  Reply to this post

  • I think it basically is a given that the majority of clients who hit big @ Paradigm, Gersh, Innovative and APA are going to leave for CAA or WME. I’m sure it’s incredibly maddening for them but not sure how they get around it. Can’t be fun for the people who broke them in to watch them make a fortune for someone else.

    Comment by Bill — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 4:07pm PST  Reply to this post

    • A big part of this problem is the fact that studios and financiers have stopped making movies and now just evaluate packages as presented to them by the big agencies. Studio execs have essentially outsourced the casting and cast-director pairing process to the agencies. So, it’s kind of inevitable these actors have little choice but to make the jump.

      Of course, this comes back to bite the studios in the rear. Look at Marvel and the AVENGERS, every single one of their cast is now at one agency and CAA has them bent nice and hard over the barrel. Good luck with that Marvel.

      Comment by sheldrake — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 4:54pm PST  Reply to this post

      • Marvel doesn’t eat it from anyone–they control the IP. Just google “Kevin Feige Ed Norton”.
        If you think Feige (just like Ike) are just going to start getting beat down by agencies, read that and think again.

        Comment by no, sorry — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 5:36pm PST  Reply to this post

        • Oh right, Feige controls the IP, so he never makes a bad deal? Sounds like you need to google “Robert Downey Jr.” and “AVENGERS” and “back end profits.”

          Sure, you can brush aside Ed Norton, and don’t forget Terrance Howard! Sorry, replacing Howard with Cheadle in IRON MAN is one thing. Recasting the ENTIRE CAST of the AVENGERS is quite another. Feige will pay dearly to put this sequel together.

          Comment by sheldrake — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 7:21pm PST  

  • Good God…Paradigm didn’t “break in” Chris Cooper, as some of these posts suggest. He had a bigger career prior to his days with them. Now that it seems to be (possibly) resurging, he wants to capitalize. It’s everyone’s right.

    Comment by m. — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 7:50pm PST  Reply to this post

• we wont know what to do with him. then he will leave and go to wme then uta THEN they will put him in a series

  Comment by caa assistant — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 4:12pm PST  Reply to this post

• The Deelio — unfortunately what you say is pretty much true. however, a large majority realize after the honeymoon is over that they are no better off. and most fear going back to their former agency even though they know deep down they were better off. but those that do go back make the best clients because they have had their taste of the other side and realize that the grass is not greener.

  Comment by therealdeal — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 4:25pm PST  Reply to this post

  • And then it all depends on how they left their agent. If they at least were big enough to dismiss their agent personally (rather than hide behind their manager or attorney, or via the dreaded email), did not stiff them on commissions, and they were able to part ways amicably (or as amicably as they could based on the circumstances), then it is quite possible that they former agents would be open to working with them again.

    Comment by The Deelio — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 6:14pm PST  Reply to this post

• Seems to me Chris Cooper had a great thing going for a long while with Paradigm. What exactly have Michael Lazzo and Untitled done in the past two years, except pitch him for television series?

  Comment by Different View — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 7:49pm PST  Reply to this post

• Cooper is very talented – one of the most in town. He deserves the right opportunities, and in features. If Paradigm has trouble keeping up with that, then he has to go elsewhere. And he’s already lost his previous agent, to whom he seemed loyal, then even more reason to go. He was most likely loyal to the agent vs. all of Paradigm.

  Comment by XYZ — Friday November 30, 2012 @ 11:03pm PST  Reply to this post

• Paradigm is falling apart….they are losing an agent a month…have not hired anyone in a year…and are loosing every important client except Shaliene Woodley who is there because she is the only client serviced by the entire agency. They are London Bridge and they are falling apart. They have no leadership and no feature agents. It went from being one of the best agencies in the biz to being the next Don Buchwald. I personally think Innovative is better. So sad!

  Comment by TalentManager — Saturday December 1, 2012 @ 3:41am PST  Reply to this post

• Dear UTA talent department – You have now lost every pursuit to CAA and WME and are never in a conversation for a big actor. Keep up those worthless Friday “signing” meetings though!…

  “Let’s go after X client…” CAA already signed them. Oh…um…how about that indie coverage then (while baldly and fat boy walks in late).

  Comment by UTA employee — Saturday December 1, 2012 @ 5:07pm PST  Reply to this post