Gersh Agency

We have...

UTA, CA, WME, Gersh, like some of the big ones with all the big executives that have been there forever.

And they kind of run Hollywood and Ari Emanuel.

Of course, as you guys know, Ari Gold was based on him from the show Entourage.

Right.

And again, like I learned from, from Gersh, Yeah.

Like I've been doing this since 2003.

Right.

You know, I did this and I didn't get paid for a year and I worked with Gersh and Gersh taught me the ins and outs.

And this is like, it was like

you and Kobe L.

So as time went on, I was getting offers and opportunities to work with Richard Abrams, Abrams and Abrams, or Richard Rosenwald, or Rita Salk.

I never noticed this thing that most people that were managers and agents, like David Guss with Gersh Agency, what have you, were Jewish.

I just didn't notice it.

I just took it for granted.

And literally, they said, first thing we have to do, we have to change your agent.

And so I was, my literary agent was at Gersh, and then eventually they moved me over to Gersh.

And I went for my first couple auditions because I knew, this is what I knew.

I knew that my auditions weren't being seen.

But Ari is very powerful.

And Megan, when she first came back after Megxit, she didn't want to go back to her smaller agency, Gersh.

She wanted one of the big top three.

And that is CAA, WME, UTA.

I'd be like, wow, you hate me.

There's nowhere for her to go.

Gersh won't take her back.

And UTA, about a year after she signed with William Morris and Debra, the head of it, Jeremy Zimmer, came out and said, just because you're famous doesn't mean you're talented.

And they'd woven so much Romero DNA into Shaun of the Dead, the title riffing on Dawn of the Dead, the "We're coming to get you, Barbara" line lifted from Night of the Living Dead, Goblin's Dawn of the Dead score used on the soundtrack, that once the film was finished, they desperately wanted George A. Romero's blessing and ideally a little bit of blurb for the poster.

The movie's executive producer, Jim Wilson, knew an agent in Los Angeles named Frank Wooliger, who worked at the Gersh Agency, which represented George A. Romero.

With Wooliger's help, they arranged for a print to be sent exclusively to Romero.

At the time, he was living on Sanibel Island, Florida, and one day received a message from some guy called Edgar Wright saying, "I made this movie, I hope you like it." With someone from Universal showing up with the print handcuffed to a case, and they set up a private one-off screening for Romero at his local cinema, which was a tiny single-screen venue on this island.

But when you, When you're not you're just going to get lost in the shuffle and even then it's like it has to be smart like are you going there because you want to you want to produce and direct and you want to have access to these resources and like packet I mean packaging is sort of not a thing as much as it used to be but like even that aspect of it sure there are pluses when you get to that level but like.

In the meantime, I've seen so many actors who were there are now at the, you know, mid-level paradigm, Gersh Innovative, all of those agencies that are, you know, of working actors.

I agree.

And I also think that the people who even – I just – it kills me.

What you might not know about the X-Files and Californication star is that he's also an accomplished writer, both a novelist and now a poet, with a debut collection out called About Time.

He joined us live on stage in New York City in conversation with the actress Gina Gershon.

Enjoy.

[audience applauding] [laughs] Hello, David.