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In Hollywood, talent agents redefine themselves
19-Jun-2009
Written by: John Winn
Consolidation between major agencies leave many out of work, searching for ways to remain relevant.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, managers at some of Hollywood's top talent agencies are in the business of reinventing themselves. This comes after a major merger of two top talent agencies and a grueling economic recession that has left many struggling to find a way to survive in an often brutal industry rife with poaching and office politics.
With the merger of WMA and Endeavor, hundreds of top talent agents and managers are out of work, forcing them to use their contacts to get what few jobs they can find in an already crowded industry.
One of the lucky ones is Sarah Botfeld, a former motion picture literary agent turned manager who joined Industry Entertainment, but not before making a clean break from her former employer WMA, which proved tricky for both her and her supervisor, Industry partner Keith Addis.
"We've been very specific with her about what she can and can't say," he said. "What she can say is: 'This is what I'm going to do, I'm excited about the people I'm working with, and if I can ever be of service to you, you know where to find me.'"
In the chaos swirling around the industry following the merger and the economic recession, stories like Botfeld's aren't new. Several agents, some with well-known A-list clients, are making the transition to manager, in the hopes that they can recession-proof themselves. It's not always easy, especially when agents are used to the high stakes, cynical world of agenting, but stressful transitions are nothing new.
Meet Judy Hofflund. In 1992, after facing a stiff economic recession and a number of layoffs in the industry, she made a similar decision to leave the agenting life to found her own management company. Her initial efforts did not go well.
"Judy left and called a couple of clients and said, 'I'm going to be a manager, and I'd love for you to come with me,'" Addis said. "She got calls that day from every single management company in town, saying, 'Judy, you're crossing the line. If you do it one more time, there's hell to pay.' What that meant was we were all going to go after her clients. It made complete sense to her immediately."
While the experience was embarrassing for her, it was also a cathartic one for her, freeing her of the poaching culture so common at talent agencies.
"It's true," said Hofflund, whose clients include Kenneth Branagh, Sally Field and Julia-Louis-Dreyfus. "I'm so happy to be away from the poaching culture; it's a huge relief for me. It's one of the reasons I like management better than agenting."
With the influx of agents into the managing side of the business, competition for jobs is fierce and during a contraction in the economy, that only increases the pressure that many feel, including managers, agents, and mid-level actors, the blue collar thespians of Hollywood. With their salaries cut, many are coming to managers for advice and branching out into branding and the Internet as movie roles become more scarce. But in a larger sense, the management and agenting sides of the business have always been intertwined.
During the 1980s, as big talent agencies such as CAA became more impersonal, actors and directors flocked to personal managers, hoping to keep their careers on track as well as craving the sort of personal relationships they used to receive during the '60s and '70s. With the economic crisis upending the industry, a new era of personal relationships is blooming in a town built on appearances.
"No individual agent would be able to have the personal relationship or give undivided attention to clients," said Alan Somers, a former agent who left WMA in 1979 to form his own company, Somers, Maudlin, and the Rose Group. "It [the economy] just created this opportunity."
For manager Aaron Kaplan, the situation boils down to two factors: chaos and opportunity, and in Hollywood, opportunity is nearly always bred by chaos.
"There's still a little bit of chaos," he said. "Chaos breeds opportunity, and opportunity breeds success."
As talent turn to managers more for help navigating the often confusing and rough world of talent agencies, the renaissance in the management side of the business is expected to continue. But when the i's are dotted and the t's crossed at the end of the day, the main goal of managers and agents is largely the same: making sure top talent remains top talent.
"At the heart of what we do is something absolutely the same," said Erwin More, a manager turned agent at WMA. "We're both managing actors, writers and directors, trying to do the best we can to see they succeed."
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