Representing Talent
Hollywood Agents and the Making of Movies
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents
Contents
Prologue: An Agent at Work
Chapter One Introduction
Conclusive Word
Chapter One Introduction
The Invention of Agenting
Filling a Lacuna in the Sociology of Hollywood
Facing Stereotypes
In the Field with Hollywood Agents
What This Book Unveils: Agents and (E)valuation Communities
Chapter Two Mapping HollywoodFilling a Lacuna in the Sociology of Hollywood
Facing Stereotypes
In the Field with Hollywood Agents
What This Book Unveils: Agents and (E)valuation Communities
Agenting in Big versus Little Hollywood
“The Other Side:” Interdependent Transformations of Studios and Agencies
The New Reality of Agenting in Big Hollywood
Chapter Three The Making of Professionals in Talent Agencies“The Other Side:” Interdependent Transformations of Studios and Agencies
The New Reality of Agenting in Big Hollywood
“Fulfilling Somebody Else’s Dreams”
An Agent’s Initiatory Path
Under the Wing of a Mentor
Forming “Generations” in Hollywood
Chapter Four Agenting as Relationship WorkAn Agent’s Initiatory Path
Under the Wing of a Mentor
Forming “Generations” in Hollywood
The Meaning of Relationships
The Definition of an Agent’s Style
“Trust” between Agents and Production Professionals
Chapter Five Agents and Artists: Enchanted Bonds and Power RelationsThe Definition of an Agent’s Style
“Trust” between Agents and Production Professionals
Agents’ Emotional Competence
Controlling Talent?
Embedded Identities and Hierarchies
Chapter Six Naming Quality and Pricing TalentControlling Talent?
Embedded Identities and Hierarchies
Agents in Hollywood’s Evaluation Communities
“What It Takes to Get a Movie Made”
Pricing the Unique
Chapter Seven Agents of Change: The Formation of New Evaluation Communities“What It Takes to Get a Movie Made”
Pricing the Unique
Conclusive Word
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
Notes
References
Index
Review Quotes
Denise D. Bielby, University of California, Santa Barbara
“A masterful excursion into one of Hollywood’s least familiar professions—its talent agents. Through diligent fieldwork, Roussel reveals their work routines, career inspirations, and occupational aspirations, and how the industry’s organizational structure defines their scope. With nuance and sophistication, Roussel explains agents’ essential contribution to the artistic valuation of talent and elevates and enriches our understanding of Hollywood as culture producing industry.”
John Thornton Caldwell | author of Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television
“Roussel provides a much-needed sociological intervention into the growing field of production studies. She uncovers a different Hollywood than the ones charted by predecessors Rosten and Gitlin. A model of situated ethnography, this book details the in-between cultural work—of relationships, mentorships, and evaluation communities—that industry uses to counteract the creative precarity foregrounded by other scholars.”
Laura Grindstaff, University of California, Davis
“Talent agents are surrounded by popular myth and misperception—but who are they really and what do they do? In this pathbreaking book, Roussel draws on interviews and behind-the-scenes observation to cast a detailed, ethnographic eye on the ‘show’ and ‘business’ of Hollywood agenting in the new media era. Across large, mid-size, and boutique firms, agents must connect talent to jobs by harnessing their own capacity to broker personal relationships within and across deeply hierarchical structures where a dizzying array of industry stakeholders compete for power and influence. How and why agents foster ‘professional intimacy,’ build reputations, negotiate deals, and place a value on talent in a media landscape that is both risk-averse and ever-shifting is the subject of this book. A sociological tour de force of great depth and sophistication, Representing Talent is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the high-stakes game of Hollywood cultural production today.”
Times Higher Education
“Roussel’s analysis of Hollywood’s power dynamic is perceptive and convincing. . .This book will not help readers to find the good agent who is clearly an indispensable requirement for a successful career in the movies, but it will help them to understand something of Hollywood’s inner workings.”
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