The Only Foolproof Strategy There Is

Make it undeniable

I recently had an old friend reach out to ask some questions about trying to puzzle together a pitch for a TV series and as he was asking whether it made more sense to try for A or try for B I found myself pausing to say… “There’s no “Right” answer… but…”

There is no right answer. But. There is one foolproof strategy that I can recommend and it applies to every phase of a Hollywood career.

Make it undeniable.

It’s the one piece of advice that I think I can give without ANY caveats. Which is a rare treat because I am usually constantly couching any advice in “in my experience,” and “for me.” But this one is just undeniably true. And it feels nice to have a North Star, any North Star, especially in a business that is known for being the most fickle.

As you may or may not be familiar with from previous issues of Hollyweird, I've been in the midst of packaging (aka trying to attach meaningful actors / producers) up two separate films the past few months and there is a constant push and pull to the process of "we need to get the world's most famous person in order to make this" on one side and "we need to get someone who we know will be creatively right, and also who will want to do it!" on the other.

It's a constant battle, and really embodies the tension between commerce and art. It’s the exact conundrum facing every filmmaking decision. But as my friend was asking about whether to do A or B I found myself giving him the advice -- just make it. Just do whatever you can to make it because then it can be undeniably good. If it's on paper, even if it's a great script and a great actor, it still has the potential to be questioned. Until it's real... it's deniable. Once you make it, and it's good, it's pretty hard to pretend otherwise. Prioritize whatever needs to be prioritized so that you can make the damn thing.

I keep writing scripts that people love to call "execution dependent." You may have heard this in meetings about your own work. Usually it’s code for "we cannot tell at this time whether this will work financially." It feels like a bit of a cop out. It really means ambitious, or unusual, unconventional. Another way to say it might be that something execution dependent is "artistic" or “original.” I have come to interpret it as actually meaning: “We do not yet have a previous project that has done exactly this and worked out so fantastically that we would like to repeat that process.” Which… actually has nothing to do with quality, merit, or even likelihood of success. It is code for “we like to mitigate risks here at Movie Corp.”

It is hard enough getting anything done in Hollywood, even something safe and familiar and that you can easily tell your boss about in the last 45 seconds of a zoom meeting before they leave for something else. So when people receive something challenging, it’s often an easy way to say “well, not for us at this time. Thanks!” And it is very, very hard to convince someone that something execution dependent is worth trying to execute.

So if you are stuck with "why haven't I gotten this person on the team," whether it's a producer, a manager, and agent, instead of asking yourself "how do I convince them?" I'd suggest reframing it as "how do I make myself and/or the project undeniable?" Sometimes you CAN take something execution dependent and add a movie star who is undeniable. Let's say you happen to know and be friends with Jennifer Lawrence AND have written her the perfect vehicle.

It isn’t just about scripts. Casting is actually the place I have this argument the most... I'll propose someone young and cool or who hasn't yet become famous and producers will often get nervous. “Well they aren't proven. They aren't necessarily a box office draw.” They aren't yet Undeniable. But here's the thing... very few people are undeniable. And before they were undeniable, they were just ordinary untested unproven people.

So in our current extremely risk averse Hollywood ecosystem this is a plea to remember:

You can make something without it being a sure thing. Nothing is a sure thing.

It's only a sure thing after you make it and it works and it's a big hit and everyone loves it. Before that it is always execution dependent. It's always deniable. There is always a way to say no. Until you've done it.

Then... If it's really good... you can be undeniable. Next Time.

This is all advice that I've stolen from Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up (a very good read). He has repeated some version of this throughout his entire career. When asked what his advice is he always says... "this isn't the advice anybody wants to hear, because it's hard to do, but...

Be so good they can't ignore you.

Warning. This clip is from Charlie Rose. [I’m aware]

It's easy to ignore an email or a script or a script + lookbook, or a script + lookbook + B-level celebrity attachment, and so on and so on... it's very hard to ignore "they went out and made this movie and it fucking rules and I never heard of anybody who did it before."

Don't get stuck on the politics. Or the allure of the shiny thing. Do whatever you can to make what you want to make, ideally at a level slightly above the last thing you made.

And spend your time getting really really really good.

Forget trying to get permission or attention.

Be so good they can't ignore you.