The Boss Of All Bosses
Posted by Craig Mazin on 25 Jan 2006 at 02:32 am | Tagged as: The Craft & Trade
Who is he?I want to talk about the worst boss in Hollywood.
Since I work in Hollywood, I have to be a bit discreet about this. I don’t want to get in trouble, but I feel like I should warn you all, since many of you work in the business, and the rest of you want to work in the business.
I’m even using the phrase “the Boss” so as not to specifically say this person is a producer or a director or an exec or what. All I’ll tell you is that it’s not one of the Weinsteins.
Where to begin?
The Boss is rude. The Boss doesn’t care about niceties, and will literally insult you to your face. I’ve sat in a room with the Boss and been mocked, sneered at, and called a loser. He’s called my writing “stupid” to my face.
Yeah, the Boss goes ad hominem all the time. In fact, he’s never constructive. He almost always bitches aimlessly at you, as if you’re already dead to him. As if there’s no hope that you’ll do better.
Now, maybe that would be worth it if the Boss gave good notes, but most of the times, the Boss has no clue what he actually wants.
He says he want this, but he really wants that. He says he likes something, but then he trashes it to everyone else the very next day. Sometimes he says he hates something, but he secretly likes it.
It drives me crazy.
Maybe all of that would be tolerable if the Boss were hard-working, but he’s the laziest guy I know in this business. He just sits there. It’s amazing to me how little he knows about filmmaking. In fact, he pretty much knows nothing about filmmaking. Zippo. He just sits and shrugs. You have to fight for every reaction. He’s cynical, jaded, and bored with you before you even walk in the room.
Wait. It gets worse.
Maybe…MAYBE…all of this would be fine if only the Boss appreciated how hard I work. He doesn’t. In fact, The Boss really has no clue how much I work, nor does he seem to care. He’s literally said to me, “What you do is so easy.”
I’m quoting the Boss. Granted, that was a really bad day for him, but still, it hurt. I mean, here I was working my heart out for this guy, and all he could say was, “Anyone could have done this better. Literally. Anyone.”
The Boss never gives encouragement. If you’re down, he kicks you.
But folks…here’s the sick part.
I love working for the Boss. Maybe it’s because he’s so brutal. I don’t know. All I know is that earning the Boss’ approval has become more important than earning my own approval. Hell, half the time I’m modelling my own sense of what is good on what I think the Boss will enjoy, even though predicting that jerk is nearly impossible. Somewhere along the line, making the Boss happy has become like crack for me.
So, I ask…what do you think? Am I helpless? A masochist? What would you do in my shoes?
More importantly, could you deal with someone like the Boss?
Naturally, you should feel free to guess who the Boss is. I bet some of you already know.
No, he’s not Satan. But if you meet him…have some courtesy.
Won’t you guess his name?
i’d vote for jon peters, but you didn’t mention killing invincible leads or stupid spider contraptions.
there’s no way i could work with someone like that. i just don’t have it in me. hd and quad macs here i come.
i’m hoping, really, that the boss is you. treating yourself like that is one way of keeping on top of your work.
I sense you’r etalking about your inner critic. However, I’ve worked for real people like that.
Tyler Durden.
I’ll go with Joe Q. Public.
And I emphathize – but as a member thereof, I still have to wonder how many really, truly, horrible movies get made. I just can’t conceive of a series of events that would cause people to invest millions of dollars in something like “Along Came Polly.” Or that, once have contributed to the horror that is “Alone in the Dark,” would give money to the same person to ruin another potentially interesting movie, like “Bloodrain.”
The Boss of Bosses may be fickle, but sometimes I have to think he’s not harsh enough!
“The audience,” of course.
It’s really “you”, isn’t it?
Sounds like some sort of version of the hostage syndrome where the captive grows to like or even love his captor(s).
I think everyone’s gut reaction would be “I’d never work for that guy. Or I’d quit if someone treated me that way.” But I think this is a case of “walk a mile in my shoes.” I’d probably endure it as well
As for the wanting to please this person. I’m not sure what would drive that other than the syndrome mentioned above. Especially if you objectively think the guy is clueless.
If I remember a post you made awhile ago about boss’. If I recall correctly, you said that people as beligerent as that typically don’t last long. He he has no movie making sense. He doesn’t work hard, and shits all over everything he can probably because he’s afraid everyone will see that he is clueless.,
Of course he could possess that rare kind of evil that never goes away, and finds a way to stick around at all costs.
Also, even if I thought this guy’s affect on you was somehow positive, I could never endorse or encourage this monster to keep doing what he’s doing.
I think Jacob Sager Weinstein solved the riddle.
Just like the floor wax that’s also a shoe polish, why not both your inner critic AND the audience?
This could also be a mirror question aimed at the commenters. Zornhau says “inner critic” so he’s answered the question for himself. Weinstein says “the audience,” so we now know who’s important to him.
Me? I dithered, and now you know something about me.
Good post.
I’m with you on the “audience” comparison, until this line:
“The Boss never gives encouragement. If you’re down, he kicks you.”
I think the audience gives a LOT of encouragement. They buy tickets. They rave about movies they like. They make their favorites (people and movies) famous.
This could also be a mirror question aimed at the commenters. Zornhau says “inner critic” so he’s answered the question for himself.
Actually, I don’t do “inner critic” in the angsty personal development way. (Though I hope I have well developed critical faculties which I can apply to my writing).
On rereading this thread, and the OP, it’s fairly clear to me that the Boss of Bosses is the audience, who really don’t give encouragement because – let’s face it – they usually don’t have a scoobie who wrote the films. At most, they think in terms of directors.
I know exactly who you’re talking about. I’ve worked for him many times. And I never understand his tastes. Sometimes he loves what I do, sometimes he doesn’t. At first I thought it was me but then I realized it was him. It’s always him. He’s so unpredictable.
But he is the boss.
On a side note, most of you already know that Chris Penn has passed. I worked with him years ago on a truly horrible movie and we actually got into a fight on set. I didn’t see him for awhile after that but then we bumped into each other on the CBS lot. He was about 100 pounds heavier but most of that anger he had was gone. He was funny and charming and a totally different guy. We apologized to each other and promised to hang out and keep in touch.
We never spoke to each other since that afternoon.
But I’ll miss him. And so will The Boss.
DON’T HATE “THE BOSS”.
The boss had dreams once. The boss wanted to contribute, he couldn’t wait to contribute, to be – SOMEBODY, and he was sure he would,.. when he was young.
But something, somewhere, went wrong.
He got his chance, but blew it, maybe more than once, maybe every time. Failure, at least in his own eyes it would seem, is in his nature, and he knows it, but doesn’t know why, let alone have any idea how or what to change.
Or worse, even more cruel, THE BOSS never, ever, not even once, got his shot. He always had responsibilities. Responsibilities he couldn’t ignore. And didn’t.
So now he’s trapped, in a life he never planned for or wanted, and it’s made him mean, very mean, and angry, right down to his core.
It doesn’t matter, at all, how much “money” he’s making. If he’s got money he’s already learned, better than anyone ever could, or should have to, just how little comfort “money” offers.
He might flaunt his wealth, before those that don’t know what he knows, and grasp for it every chance he gets, but only because money, and the occasional ability to flaunt it, offers him one of the few opportunities he ever gets not to feel quite so pathetic.
And if he doesn’t have it he dreams of acquiring it in the mistaken belief it will fix his problems.
But it won’t.
So who is “THE BOSS”?
“THE BOSS” is you Craig, and me, and anyone else that loses their dreams and vision of who they want to be.
Pragmatism, cold, hard, clear eyed, Pragmatism, is the only God THE BOSS will bow to.
And for good reason.
THE BOSS had his dreams crushed. He knows now all too well just how dangerous “dreams” can be, how much pain failing to attain them can cause. He hates “dreams”, and has absolutely NO respect or fondness for dreamers.
Dreamers are pathetic, impractical, they’re fools, and very dangerous fools that if left unchecked will drag everyone around them down a path that leads to catastrophic failure and irreparable consequences.
“Dreamers” have to be watched. They have to be kept on a very short leash. They don’t respect “The Rules”. They’re constantly trying to break them, or bend them, circumvent or redefine them.
AND THAT CAN’T BE ALLOWED.
Not ever.
“The Rules” are structure. “The Rules” are order, and predictability, and to any cold, hard, clear eyed, Pragmatist, order and predictability are the very basis of survival.
Beware THE BOSS.
Don’t hate him, because he was once just like you, he was you, once, a long time ago, but be very very wary of him.
THE BOSS doesn’t like you, and he never will. You remind him too much of who he once was or thought he wanted to be and he despises you for that. He’ll use you, but only for as long as you remain useful to him, and the very first chance he gets, he’ll crush you.
So who is THE BOSS?
It doesn’t matter.
THE BOSS can be someone you work with, or for. THE BOSS can be anyone of that hoard of self-proclaimed online “fans” that claim to be doing no more than offering “constructive” criticism (spiked with a dollop of soul eating venom that they spent a lot of time crafting and mixing). THE BOSS can be a well known critic, or parent, a sibling, or jealous lover.
But what THE BOSS is above all else is someone who hates dreams and dreamers, and if he can, HE’LL DESTROY YOU.
Beware THE BOSS.
I would never work for someone like that. No amount of money can subtitute for respect and self-respect. Have a spine and quit! That’s what I’d do.
This boss may be the worse, but he’s one example of the way the industry infantilizes the writer ( and the audience).
Daniel L
JSW nailed it.
But you forgot an important aspect of The Boss:
He can be tricked. In fact, he wants to be tricked. He wants to be the shiny-eyed six-year-old at the magic show, who really thinks the bunny is actually coming out of nowhere.
And when you succeed in dazzling him, his joy is as genuine and infectious as that six-year-old’s.
There are worst guys than the one you’re describing. Waaaay worst.
Believe me.
I think it’s equally possible that it’s “the audience” (although Keith has a point) or a real person. My current boss is like that, and I’ve heard worse stories.
My question is, if it is Jon Peters (see above comment about “worse stories”) or someone similar, how do react to him personally? You say that you try to please him in your writing, but what do you say to his face?
Personally, when my boss treats me like shit, I call him on it. We get in very heated arguments, even outright shouting matches, but to my surprise, he hasn’t fired me yet. Also surprising, I haven’t quit.
I find his idiotic ramblings a challenge; perhaps he views me the same way. Is that how you react?
‘But folks…here’s the sick part.
I love working for the Boss. Maybe it’s because he’s so brutal. I don’t know. All I know is that earning the Boss’ approval has become more important than earning my own approval. ‘
As far as that goes you may want to look into this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
God?
I think it would be funny if the boss were really a person and we’re all overanalyzing it to hell.
If The Boss isn’t just yourself … seriously consider whether he deserves for you to work so hard for his approval.
If The Boss is just yourself (my bet) … seriously consider whether he deserves for you to work so hard for his approval.
Don’t let anyone (including yourself) abuse you, and definitely don’t let negativity be a driving force in your creativity.
I’ll vote for The Boss as your own inner critic.
Regardless, there are real people in this industry who do act like that, as hard as it is to believe. I should know. I used to work for one.
The guy was merciless, constantly on my ass, often for things that he asked me to do. I did everything I could to try and do things in the way that would make him happy.
Then one day one of the other executives said to me, “You’re just like an abused child who thinks that maybe, if I do it right this time, then maybe then daddy will finally love me.”
I quit the next day.
The Boss cannot be Inner Craig – The Boss knows nothing of filmmaking – Zippo.
Hey, would you a-holes stop talking about me like I’m not SITTING RIGHT HERE!
Losers.
This could also be a mirror question aimed at the commenters. Zornhau says “inner critic” so he’s answered the question for himself. Weinstein says “the audience,” so we now know who’s important to him.
Nah. I don’t think of “the audience” this way myself. It’s just that I can read Mazin like an open book.
The Boss may be The Inner Critic who itself is subjected to another even deeper Critic who maintains it knows nothing of filmmaking.
Scott Rudin?
You know, if this guy were a lawyer, I’d say I worked for him. My loser boss often found pleasure in ridiculing his staff in front of the clients. When I worked as a paralegal, the biggest complement I ever got from him was “This doesn’t suck.”
Meanwhile, I once had a judge follow me back from court and explain that he knew I had written a specific brief (not my loser boss). The judge then sat me down for about an hour and told me that I absolutely needed to go to law school.
So, basically, even when we were really good there, loser boss still treated us like crap. And it’s why I quit.
I’ve been writing screenplays for about six years and hope to make a living at it real soon. I’ve attended many screenwriting conferences and lectures to listen to many screenwriters who make a living in the business. They often talk about the verbal abuse they get.
I try to be sympathetic but I can only say, “Ha.” You have no idea how cruel verbal abuse can be until you’ve worked in the business of technology. After working as an electrical and software engineer for over fifteen years, I got into screenwriting by way of programming computer games. When I got my first batch of critiques during the first Project Greenlight, I was ecstatic that I not only got some feedback but it wasn’t nearly as vindictive or personal as what I’d been putting up with as an engineer.
In my dealings with producers, directors, and writers, I have yet to experience anywhere near the verbal abuse I heard or read as an engineer. You might feel better about your own situation if you could fully appreciate the intellectual bullying engineers are capable of. I have to admit I did my fair share of it for what I perceived as my own defense but I at least tried to stay in touch with what the other person was feeling. Most engineers not only don’t pay attention to what the other person might be feeling, they have no idea what the other person might be feeling. People in the movie and theater business have to at least pretend they recognize that other people have feelings. Engineers have no reason to even pretend.
Don’t believe me yet? I feel lucky that, until one of my screenplays sell, I make money writing patents. I feel lucky because I’m now working with lawyers instead of engineers. Maybe I got really lucky but the lawyers I deal with are, compared to engineers, kind, generous, and mindful of other people’s feelings.
I don’t know who The Boss is, but I know someone who worked for an equally irredeemable person, and the only way the relationship ended well was when the abused employee cut and run. Though the employee had tried to work it out, reason with his boss, make it better, in the end, leaving was the only remedy.
Don’t be such a wuz. Kill him, frag the SOB. Use a hatchet so you can see his brains splatter. pansies!
Meet the new boss…same as the old boss.
craig
am i understanding you? this guy is rude? he does not offer encouragement? who the fuck cares? i can destroy people like this at will. i have. the talented writer is king. all others bow down before him/her.
i got what the industry needs. i feel sorry for the schmuck that crosses me
zilla
Uhhhhh……
If it isn’t the audience, I don’t think it could be Rudin either. As bad as his reputation is, there’s actually some evidence that he knows what a good story is. Look at Wonder Boys. Of course I might be wrong but…
Bruce S sounds like a real jerk. Personally, this type of abuse wouldn’t make me quit, but I would spend the next fifty years plotting my revenge.
I vote for the ‘audience’ or ‘newspaper film critics’. But if a real person, it amazes me how a fickle, ignorantly-failing scatter-brained lazy-headed type of boss like that, can remain a Boss, but then even beyond Hollywood, the Fortune 1000 is littered with such.
You can tolerate if profits are up, but once things get dry, best to have some one that knows what they are doing, that can steer the ship. You can be mean, downright evil and near the Devil Incarnate, if you know your stuff. But mean and inept? Never works long-term, unless family or political connections, but then a mass talent exodus from that group. Big difference between harsh heavy pressure and undefragged lunatic nonsense. But gotta hope Earl is right, Karma will get them in the end.
PS – Too late to change my vote? But the ‘lazy’ part, has me thinking inner-critic, as never met a workaholic screenwriter, more talk than ever writing (myself included). Even the worst inept Hollywood bosses seem to have full-schedules, even if just eternally-pointless, yet easily justified, wining and dining. Lazy was a tip-off.
And I know, I am fickle, wanting this that day, something else the next, never really sure what I want or where it’s all going or if it’s even going to work. Will the clients will like it and will I even get paid. Feels all Woody Allenish — ‘I hope I don’t screw it all up’, every single project. Plan B and Plan C are always close at hand. And after every project I always, go angsty and think ‘Anyone could have done this better. Anyone’. That’s the almost screenwriting process itself.
Well, at least inwardly I mirror that boss, but externally if I was that way, you should shoot me.
Just had to pitch in too.
If the Boss is actually a philosophical metaphor, as suggested by some people, than it’s lost on me. And also, frankly, not very interesting. Sure, as writers we have demons to fight, and we do everyday. But they’re our own demons, and not really someting to bitch about. If you’re fighting yourself, that’s your own war. Literalliy.
Thus, convinced that The Boss is an actual person, let me just tell you about a good friend (no, not a pseudonym for myself, this actually is a story about a friend) who was married to a woman with clear streaks of psychopathy.
She never encouraged him. She never showed love. She was always to tired from (insert arbitrary excuse here) to interact with him at all, socially or romantically, and just wanted be left alone. For every day they were toghether, more and more of my firend’s time started to become about making his wife’s life as easy as possible. He did whatever she wanted him to do. Anticipated things she might want him to do before they became an issue. Basically, he became her servant. Her assistant. Her chef-slash-cleaning lady-slash-runner-slash-always smiling, never saying no, Santa’s little pro bono helper — hoping that this would help him a. earn her love and b. make her less tired and subsequently more prone to share time with him. Which, of course, never happened. She used her oppressing methods to make him her servant. And paradoxically, the more he did what she wanted, and the more he became her servant, the more she despised him. And the less love he got.
Bottomline: I know why you stay. I know why even think you like it. It’s because that hunt of the small potential snippets of almost-love becomes an obsession to you, and the mere hope of there being a new snippet at the horizon keeps you going through that desert, day after day, no water, no food, and definitely no love. All there is for you to live on is hope. So you create a lot of it. To survive.
My suggestion to you? The same as to my married friend. Divorce the guy.
All relationships are about giving AND taking. Except for the abusive ones.
The Boss is the man with the money and the power to greenlight a movie.
If it’s the middleman, which makes the situation even worse, then you’re happily masochistic.
Craig – I’m hoping this is your inner critic and not a real person as that’s such a toxic environment to have to exist in, and I’ve had my share. My first job was working for three years in TV for a boss like that. Feature work has had all manner of variations form supportive and great to shit. One of the bad ones, ironcially, from a long time friend who was a producer on a studio job! And Steven Segal, of all people, was nice to me while trashing everyone else and the script I wrote. I’ve also been treated like a prince and realize these are now sacred moments. But the bully paradigm is rampant in Hollywood (and elsewhere where there is big money) because it works. Un-creative people can create a wall of impenetrability using humiliation, disrespect, accusation and fear ultimately to make sure they are never questioned by anyone and everyone else is always on the defensive. It insures their survival in a town that demands accountability for failure. So it’s a survival instinct for you to want to stay alive in that environment, which translates into “make daddy like me.” So of course you want to please the boss. That’s the boss’s whole M.O. But it’s not necessarily the best thing for you. As he is your boss and not a peer, you cant complain to your boss about him. As he is your direct line in your money chain, and may not want to quit to solve the problem, you have to make a decision. To grin and bear it mars your integrity as one deserving respect. That’s major – as disrespect is key to taking away your power. You accept his crap – and he immediately sees he can do anything with you and to you merely by turning up the heat. Time to draw the boundries. But best if you can determine his motives. Is he taunting you for fun? Because he feels bad about himself, so wll feel better if you feel like crap? Or is trying to provoke a response in you that he can then point back to you and say “I cant work with that guy” to get you removed? In the end it may not matter, but what does matter is how you perceive yourself. Endlessly pleasing an undeserving master is much like running through a sniper zone and hoping you won’t be hit. If you get to the end alive, you feel you’ve had a great day, even though you’ve had to crawl over dead bodies and through sewage. But – you’re not in a war zone, the boss just makes you think you are. You’re a professional writer working the big bucks in the big show. So you draw some boundries. Maybe that’s something that doesn’t come easily or natural to you, or perhaps it has up to now, but not with such an inappropriate and offensive authority figure. Part of the bully’s plan of attack hinges on the fact that they’re upsetting you so much inside that they’ve shut you down and you can’t think on your feet. It’s like the sucker punch in a bar fight. Then when you’re stunned, they keep hitting until you’re knocked out – if they want to go that far. So here’s your three step tool box in people management dealing with abusive manipulative emotional war mongers: 1) Be ready. This may sound silly, but in that sniper alley – would you walk into it un-ready in any other scenario? You need to know when you were under the threat of attack – and that means all the time at work. That means have replies ready. Work them out in your mind. I’m not kidding. Because they won’t come to you in the heat of humiliation unless you’re used to it. It’s not a waste of time, it might actually be theraputic (even if you never do it to the boss) in the sense that you’re finally giving yourself a voice against abusive authority behaviour – even though it’s in practice. 2) When you respond, don’t be emotional. Sometimes having to draw a boundry becomes emotional becasue so much pent up emotion has been sat on for months. That will be incindiary. Make objective intellectual statements that either question your attackers emotions – “are you angry about something?” or ask for more information to get them out of their own emotions and into their intellectual mind: “When you say it’s stupid, I need to know why you think that.” I’m not kiddng. This works. “anyone could do this” is terribly cutting. Sometimes humor works: answer: you reflect “You say anyone could do this becasue – you’ve been giving everyone else notes?” I was once told to my face that “a good writer would have done – x” and I put down my note pad and just started laughing at how rude the statement was and made no move to continue writing notes. It stopped the room, and the exec. stopped too and actually apologized and the meeting continued at a higher level. 3) Require more infomration from abusive statements. “You say that because… You feel that because… And by that you mean – really tell me I want to know so we can address that -” it again forces them back into their intellecutal mind, rather than their emotional (abusive) space. In the end, you can never know the best fit until you start, but for the protection of your own inner spirit and creative source – I’m not kidding – you have to start defensive manuevers immeiately. Thinking about this ass ‘s derisive comments upon receiving the very work you’re writing tonight, thinking of them as you write and starting to second guess yourself endlessly because of it, is the beginning of the corosive deteriation to your most sacred channel, your creative source. So really go for it and change your relationship. Anyone has the power to do this by using truly conscious energy. You can raise the energy level of the work environment, or at least make your relationship less abusive and disrespectful and without having to endlessly placate.
There are a lot of very very bad people who are in authority in the workplace. That is what should have been discussed for four years in college and maybe four years in High School. But no… Peloponnesian war three times instead and the Bill of Rights. I guess you could extrapolate from both but I was never that smart.
“The Boss” could be anyone you or me. Don’t we all look in the mirror?