Historically, few Hollywood agents have become successful film producers, and probably none in the past 50 years has done better than Barry Mendel, whose Judd Apatow film “Funny People” opens this week. Twice nominated for Oscars, (“The Sixth Sense,” “Munich”), Mendel began agenting as a way to learn the business while figuring out his true path. He talked with Eric Estrin about how he landed his first client -- and which line from “Rushmore” sums up his life.
I was in bands when I was young, and I moved to L.A. in hopes of making money as a musician. It wasn’t terrible, but I was barely getting by. After a while, I decided to just bail and give up the dream.
I thought maybe I could get a job as a creative executive in Hollywood -- I was a creative person, and I would see that job title when I read the trades. But no one would hire me. I somehow forced my way into interviews, and people would say, “There’s like a million people who want these jobs, and most of them are more qualified than you.”
Then I would ask how did they get started. They all seemed to start in the mailrooms of agencies. That’s where David Geffen started; that’s where Bernie Brillstein started; that’s where directors like Walter Hill and John Badham started. Everything goes through agencies.
And then I thought: I know a lot of movies, but I have no credits, no experience, no years in the business, no Type-A personality, no major relationships. If I try to work in movies, what am I gonna bring to the table? I thought, well, writers and directors of movies, and actors, too, respect people who know a lot about film. That’s one thing I can control.
I decided to become the most well versed person about film in the room at the beginning of my career as a way of having a reason to be there without feeling like a complete faker.
I started watching movies and making lists of all the films that were nominated for Best Screenplay, or all the films that were nominated for Best Director, or all the films of Ingmar Bergman or whoever. So over the course of five years, it was like my predilections came out by forcing myself to watch so many films.
Really, through that process I discovered who I was and what my taste was. It happened in a very simple but unconscious way.
While that was going on, I got an interview for ICM’s training program, and I gave them the answers I figured they were looking for. I got the job.
Then I found out this novelist who I’d really admired was also a very prestigious screenwriter, and that was Calder Willingham. So I wrote him a two-page letter in care of his publisher, asking him why he hadn’t published anything lately. He called me a few months later and asked me to represent him.
