Superagent Ari Emanuel: Born to fight

The office is spacious, the view spectacular. Add a treadmill desk, and you’ve got the ideal setting for a Hollywood superagent, Ari Emanuel. The TV character Ari Gold from HBO’s “Entourage” was based on him.

Emanuel’s rise to the top began at the bottom in – where else? – the mailroom. “You’d be picking food up in the morning, copying scripts from all the different agents,” he said. And twice a day, he’d drive all over Los Angeles, dropping off scripts to producers, directors and actors. “You come back, you’d have a morning run and a night run,” he said.

He affirmed that the job sucked. But all those deliveries? They paid off. He’s now the head of WME Group, the mega talent agency whose clients include Denzel Washington, Adele, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Bruno Mars, and Adam Sandler. Emanuel is also chairman of TKO, which owns UFC and WWE.

“I’m a really hard worker,” he said. “I’ve created a culture, and people that follow me. So, I still might be a moron. But certain people think I’m actually good at my job. And so, that’s good!“

At 65, Emanuel is telling his story in a memoir, “Roll the Calls” (to be published Tuesday by Knopf). Emanuel said, “Somebody asked me in this process, having read the book, ‘Are you happy?’ Most of the time I say, I’m satisfied-ish, and I’m happy-ish. But I don’t like to use phrases like, I am more competitive. I mean, I’m a competitive guy.”

That’s an understatement. Emanuel, raised a few miles north of Chicago, loves to compete, loves to win even more. “The way we grew up, in my family, and my parents, it was always a life of meaning and self-improvement,” he said. “They were never afraid of confrontation. I’m not afraid of confrontation, ever. I think my two brothers are not afraid of conflict. And I don’t do well with people that threaten me.”

Expectations in the Emanuel house were always high. His mother was a civil rights activist, his father a doctor. Plus, two older brothers: Rahm, who served as President Obama’s chief of staff, then as mayor of Chicago; and Zeke? He’s just a world-renowned bio-ethicist and oncologist. “So, Zeke was the smart one, Rahm was the artist, and I was the baby,” said Ari. “And so, in our family, we’d come in, and your grades would be up.”

Yes, the Emanuel boys’ grades would be posted on the board. If you got a C-? “Oh, you’re grounded! What are you talking?” said Ari. “C-? You’re grounded. Pissed me off.”

There’s a hint of the emotion that has followed Emanuel throughout his career: rage. In chapter one of his book, he says one client simply calls him a “ragent.” It all goes back to his childhood, bullied for being dyslexic, until he changed his dynamic: “So, you know, I’m with special ed, and the football team’s downstairs. One of these football players is making fun of this kid in special ed with me, and I just asked him, you know, cut it out. It didn’t happen. And I remember taking that lunch tray, and smashing it in his face.

“You’ve got to be protecting yourself, protecting other people that you care about. I’m okay defending people and defending myself, and doing what I think is right,” he said.

His love of television and movies fueled his ambition to become an agent, which is a bigger job than you might think. “An agent takes dreams, and makes people realize them,” he said. “And in that process is, yes, you’re negotiating fees, you’re getting a script made, raising money, helping making sure that the marketing is there, fighting the fight when a studio, a producer is trying to get in the way, or get them out of tough situations.”

Does he like it when there is a bad guy? “Well, when there’s a bad guy, I’m okay in that fight,” he said. “I’m comfortable in that fight.”

That comfort with going to battle is a trademark, a badge of honor. Like 35 years ago, when Emanuel left CAA, and his boss, legendary agent Mike Ovitz, gave Emanuel the “If you quit, you’ll never work in this town again” speech.

“And he just said, ‘You know, this is not gonna be good for you,’ in whatever the phrase was,” Emanuel said. “And I just, like, didn’t understand it.”

He took it as a threat that he would pay a price if he left. And so he stood up, grabbed a chair, raised it and said, “Mike, are you threatening me?”

“It was an extreme moment,” Emanuel admitted. “There were moments in life early on where it was ‘Shoot, aim.’ That’s not the case anymore.”

But it’s still in his arsenal? “Oh, it’s definitely there!” he laughed. “The red button can get hit!”

As much as Emanuel talks about anger, competing, and winning, he’s a pretty upbeat guy. Optimistic, too, even about the future of show business in uncertain times.

“Telling stories is human nature,” he said. “It’s always been around. It’s not going anywhere. Is AI and other things going to make it better? I think so.

“We have to adapt to change. I think there’s going to be actually more movies and more television. Now, does that mean that TV shows, the writers’ rooms are going to be 12 people? Maybe it’s eight. And people will argue that’s good and bad. Okay, let’s have that argument.”

Ari Emanuel always wants to have the argument. What he doesn’t want is a clichéd question from a reporter (though he does give a really good answer). Asked if he thinks about legacy, Emanual replied, “That’s such a bulls**t phrase. That’s all flagellation. This whole concept, ‘What will my legacy be?’ Complete crap. It’s all a lie.

“Would I rather have a meaningful life, or a pleasurable life? Definitely meaningful,” he said. “I have a meaningful life. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. I continue to do things that I want to do. On the representation side, on new businesses, I keep enjoying the creative process of creating the puzzle that in my own little world. Am I worried what my f***ing legacy’s gonna be? No. Definitely not.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “Roll the Calls” by Ari Emanuel

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Story produced by Gabriel Falcon. Editor: Steven Tyler.