May 15, 1997
I had been with Mitchell Gossett at GEM and before that AMW for about a year-and-a-half total. The early AMW days were a little difficult, but as he branched off to form his own company, Mitchell Gossett assured me that things were going to change. So last May, I signed a year-long contract.
In that year, there has been some success. I was able to get on my first sitcom, as well as my second. Both Almost Perfect and Wings were great jobs to have. But at the same time, both were jobs that came through Cathy Reinking and the whole Jeff Greenberg casting office, not really Mitchell Gossett.
And I had the cute opening scene on Pacific Blue that was a lot of fun to shoot. And, again, that job came through Brad Warshaw, who has seen a couple of my plays and has been on my mailing list for a long time (originally through Larry Toffler if memory serves). So not a feather for Mitchell's hat either.
There was a time during this year when I was asked how my manager was doing for me and I checked the numbers. He was getting me 1 out of every 3 auditions I had. Now there are two ways to look at that. One is that he increased my auditioning frequency by 50%. That's good. More auditions is good. Another way to look at it is that I was doing twice as well as my manager at getting me auditions, and that's his job! I was beating him at his own game!
And also there were times when I knew something was going on that I was right for and he simply did not have the pull to make it happen. And even worse, when a friend of mine would be casting something that I was right for, and they would not call me in because they "forgot" about me, I start to think I want a manager who's got more going on out there in the business world.
So when our year-long contract signed a year ago was up for renewal, I decided to move on. I stopped by the office today and picked up my pictures and resumes. We chatted for a bit about my reasons for leaving them. I focused mostly on just wanting to try something new. It's hard to embrace change, but in the acting business, very few things are static. Making a move is a chance you often have to take.
And it's so hard to make decisions like this in L.A. Finding the right representation is such a crap-shoot. What works for one person may not for another. There is no guarantee that the best agent in town will get you auditions. All that might get you is lost in the cracks somewhere.
But for now, I'm lost in my own cracks. It's time to see what I can generate from this room on this phone flexing my own Hollywood muscle. There are some people out there who believe in me. Time to give them a chance to show how much.
Response...
December 10, 1997
You didn't mention that you fired your agent and so hampered me by
working without an agent on the team.
--Mitchell Gossett