The Thomas Guide is a legendary Los Angeles artifact\u2014a spiral-bound, map-filled book that painstakingly detailed how to navigate the sprawling metropolis by car before the age of smartphones and GPS. It is a relic that almost none of today’s junior corporate executives remember. Mention it to a modern assistant, and they are likely to assume it is an obscure ranking of pale British heartthrobs. Ask an intern, and they may simply stare at you unblinkingly for minutes in total silence.<\/p>\n
Yet, TKO Chief Executive and WME Group Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel has used that very map as a kind of metaphorical blueprint to build a modern entertainment empire. The familiar byways of Century City, the lofty heights of the Bird Streets, and the humble beginnings south of Olympic Boulevard\u2014he has traveled all of them over the course of his storied career. That same geographical and professional map also serves as the anchoring motif for "Roll the Calls," a new memoir detailing Emanuel\u2019s relentless, rage-fueled rise to the very top of the show business ladder, which hits bookstore shelves this week.<\/p>\n
As the book rolls out to the public, accompanied by upcoming live events including a major appearance in Los Angeles, Variety<\/em> sat down with Emanuel for a candid, anger-free 18-minute conversation to discuss his new tome, his perspective on the industry today, the lost art of the phone call, the stolen commission that still haunts him decades later, and the unholy, ubiquitous rise of the text message.<\/p>\n When asked why this was the right juncture in his life and career to jump in and finally tell his own story, Emanuel reflected on the sheer magnitude of the journey. He acknowledged that the memoir has come as a shock to many people, largely because the vast majority of his professional life has been spent operating behind the scenes as a fierce voice and advocate for his high-profile clients rather than as the primary subject of a narrative.<\/p>\n According to Emanuel, the book was written primarily for two distinct groups of people. First, he wanted to reach the parents who frequently approach him with immense anxiety about raising children diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, offering them insight into how to find a way forward. Looking back at his own upbringing, Emanuel credits his mother and father for letting him struggle and experience hardship while still ensuring he had the foundational tools to succeed. He describes that upbringing as incredible because it taught him to be a free thinker\u2014a trait that has profoundly shaped both his business acumen and his personal life.<\/p>\n The second group Emanuel had in mind consists of those entering the industry. He wrote the book as his own personal version of the Thomas Guide for surviving the brutal realities of the entertainment business. To achieve success in Hollywood, he emphasizes, one must realize just how difficult the path truly is. Surviving and thriving requires being relentless, maintaining absolute consistency, and possessing immense emotional endurance. Furthermore, success does not come quickly. Emanuel candidly notes that he never had a "Plan B"; he operated solely on "Plan A." Through the stories in his memoir, he hopes to demonstrate that level of sacrifice and provide other aspiring professionals with a realistic road map to reach the top.<\/p>\n The discussion naturally turned to the shifting communication habits within the modern talent agency ecosystem, specifically the observation that many contemporary agents no longer engage in the traditional practice of "rolling calls." Emanuel recalled how he handles assistants who try to bypass the telephone entirely. <\/p>\n While he understands that text messages and direct messages have become the default mode of modern conversation, Emanuel remains steadfast in his preference for the personal nature of a phone call. He noted that when he instructs an assistant to call someone, a follow-up often reveals that the assistant simply sent a text instead\u2014a deviation that does not meet his expectations. Even when an assistant successfully places a call and leaves word, Emanuel is known to push them to call right back after a short interval rather than settling for a simple message left behind. <\/p>\n When asked if he texts himself, Emanuel offered a characteristically succinct response: he describes himself as a "one-word texter," or occasionally a "two-word texter." Acknowledging that users can now easily leave voice notes, the conversation shifted toward the future of talent representation and what agencies will look like a decade from now.<\/p>\n Despite technological shifts, Emanuel remains firmly committed to the founding vision he and Mark Shapiro established at WME. He believes that the overall content business\u2014spanning live sports, live events, movies, television, podcasts, social media, concerts, books, and lectures\u2014is destined to expand rather than contract. He also anticipates a rise in direct production, coupled with declining costs driven by the integration of artificial intelligence. Creators will continue to produce smaller, highly profitable films, sparking entirely new waves of industry development. Citing an observation once shared by Steve Jobs regarding a study on human locomotion\u2014noting that humans were the slowest-moving mammals until the invention of the bicycle, after which they became the fastest\u2014Emanuel suggested that whatever the future of Hollywood looks like, the industry will always need people with the legs to pedal those bikes.<\/p>\n As talent agencies face mounting pressure to consolidate alongside the broader corporate landscape of Hollywood, Emanuel was asked whether this trend is ultimately a positive development. Admitting he does not have a definitive answer, he pointed out that industry predictions of doom are nothing new. <\/p>\n He recalled historical precedents, such as when Charlie Bludhorn took over Paramount decades ago and effectively wrote off the movie business, only for the studio to subsequently produce cinematic milestones like "The Godfather" and "Chinatown." He also noted that media mogul Barry Diller declared the movie business dead just five years ago, right before attempting to acquire Paramount. Throughout his career, Emanuel has heard prognosticators claim that packaging was over, that half-hour comedies were dead, and that dramas had run their course. Pointing to the century-long history of the business, Emanuel expressed confidence that the industry is not going anywhere because talented people will always exist and will always require professional representation.<\/p>\n Among the many revelations in "Roll the Calls," one particular historical anecdote stands out: Emanuel’s account of putting together the corporate architecture in the mid-1990s for CJ Entertainment to make a minority investment in the newly forming startup DreamWorks. In the book, Emanuel writes that Jeff Berg, then the head of ICM Partners, took the entire commission for himself. <\/p>\n Asked about the incident, Emanuel offered a pragmatic appraisal, giving Berg credit because he owned the company at the time. When Berg took the money, Emanuel’s response was simple: he accepted it, parted ways, and resolved to build his own path. When queried about how much he would have cleared from that specific transaction, Emanuel admitted he did not know the exact figure, though he quipped that Berg likely used the payout to buy a house, whereas Emanuel at the time was living in a duplex and did not yet own a home.<\/p>\n The conversation also touched on the cultural shadow of Ari Gold, Jeremy Piven\u2019s aggressive, larger-than-life caricature of Emanuel from the HBO series "Entourage." For years, many observers assumed Emanuel would never outrun the persona. However, Emanuel credits his wife, his current marriage, and the personal introspection and work he has done on himself with transforming his life. Looking back, he recognizes the era as a wild ride, but makes it clear that he no longer wants to be that incarnation of himself. When asked if he would ever assist in a reboot of "Entourage," Emanuel offered a definitive and immediate denial.<\/p>\n Shifting from personal history to current media economics, Emanuel offered his perspective on the ongoing corporate maneuvers and merger talks dominating the landscape, such as the discussions surrounding Paramount and Warner Bros. Speaking with his trademark directness while keeping a muted CNBC broadcast in his view, Emanuel pointed to the compounding challenges of recent years, noting that the industry has endured six difficult years marked by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and industry-wide strikes. Based on indications from executives across distribution, film, and cable sectors, he suggested that much of the current corporate maneuvering is driven less by fundamental business economics and more by political considerations and high-profile assets like CNN. In his view, the industry would be best served by moving past those distractions and finalizing deals to push forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Thomas Guide is a legendary Los Angeles artifact\u2014a spiral-bound, map-filled book that painstakingly detailed how to navigate the sprawling metropolis by car before the age of smartphones and GPS. It is a relic that almost none of today’s junior corporate executives remember. Mention it to a modern assistant, and they are likely to assume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[728],"tags":[729,661,275,1666,1671,64,1669,1670,1668,730,731,1667],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-cinema-and-performing-arts","tag-asian-cinema","tag-behind","tag-culture","tag-emanuel","tag-entourage","tag-evolution","tag-hollywood","tag-leaving","tag-memoir","tag-movies","tag-performing-arts","tag-unpacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orientalplaces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Now? The Journey to Telling a Life Story<\/h3>\n
The Lost Art of the Phone Call and the Text Message Age<\/h3>\n
Consolidation Pressures and Hollywood’s 100-Year Resilience<\/h3>\n
A Decades-Old Betrayal and the Ghost of Ari Gold<\/h3>\n
The Media Landscape and Industry Mergers<\/h3>\n