Chapter 121: Cruise Leaves
Chapter 121: Cruise Leaves
If Road House had been the fuse, then Richard Gere’s interview published in Hollywood Information Daily became the spark that ignited it.
On the very day the interview was published, Creative Artists Agency announced that it would pursue legal measures to defend its reputation.
Although many people could tell that Richard Gere’s statements were one-sided remarks made from the perspective of a “victim” still consumed by resentment, and although anyone with even a little industry knowledge could easily poke holes in many parts of his account, that did not stop the media from digging deeply into certain facts mentioned in his statements.
The power of gossip was formidable.
Starting the very next day, the media began publishing articles digging into the inside story of the feud between Michael Ovitz and Kapoor Sid.
Although Kapoor Sid had grown into a towering figure after leaving CAA, he was not without his own dark history. Combined with his aggressive package-deal strategy, some film failures were inevitable, and the media naturally dragged all those failures back into the spotlight.
From Mutual Admiration to Bitter Enemies: The Untold Story of Two Ace Agents
The Nine Superstars Who Gradually Declined After Leaving CAA
The Black Hand Behind the Exploding Costs of Film and Television — A Ten-Year Comparison of Hollywood Production Budgets
Destroyers of Industry Rules
…
Thus, the wave of smearing CAA quietly began.
CAA had not only drastically increased star salaries, but because of its package-deal strategies, film studios were also forced to pay enormous costs far beyond budget.
Hollywood’s six major studios were somewhat better off, but independent production companies had virtually no means of resisting CAA’s bundling tactics.
Unlike Eric, they did not possess the fame or confidence of producing blockbuster hits with every movie. As a result, they could only obediently accept CAA’s package deals.
Television media, which had long harbored dissatisfaction toward CAA’s practice of bundling television projects, also joined the attack.
Any one of these forces alone would have been enough to give CAA a severe headache. Yet this time, without any communication whatsoever, all of them instinctively exerted pressure simultaneously.
Of course, it was not as though nobody voiced support for CAA.
Some actors under the agency, while accepting interviews, more or less acknowledged that although CAA had indeed raised production costs for film studios, the greatest beneficiaries were the actors themselves.
However, such voices barely caused any ripple at all.
The main reason was that under the manipulation of those various forces, the media deliberately downplayed those viewpoints.
Although CAA also possessed formidable media public-relations power, in the face of this storm, its influence was almost completely ineffective. It had fallen into a thoroughly passive state of being endlessly attacked.
Immediately afterward, the upper management of United Artists, already overwhelmed by the disastrous box office failure of Road House, suddenly jumped out as well.
Using Richard Gere’s interview as justification, they attempted to pin the film’s failure on CAA and demanded compensation for damages.
Naturally, such a lawsuit had no chance of succeeding. United Artists merely needed a scapegoat for the failure of an investment worth tens of millions of dollars.
While standing at the center of the storm, CAA saw more than twenty second- and third-tier actors leave the agency in succession.
But even that did not create the greatest turmoil inside CAA.
The true shock came when Tom Cruise suddenly announced his departure from the agency.
After the media expressed sympathy toward Richard Gere, some reporters shifted their attention toward negotiations involving the two male leads of Eric’s new film.
Very quickly, through aggressive media investigation and the cooperation of interested parties, details of the negotiations between Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and CAA were exposed.
The media harshly criticized CAA’s “arrogant corporate mentality,” claiming that only a giant agency like CAA could think of treating actors like chess pieces to be manipulated at will. Richard Gere’s accusations, they argued, were clearly not baseless.
In truth, during this period, CAA had already lowered its requested percentage share to twelve percent.
CAA immediately issued a clarification, stating that the quoted asking prices for the two superstars were nowhere near as exaggerated as reported.
However, the media repeatedly used the matter to fuel further attacks.
Several analysts also published opinions in newspapers, arguing that if CAA’s practices continued disrupting the film market in this manner, government agencies should investigate the company.
Under the influence of certain forces, a California state legislator even gave a vague interview hinting at the possibility of launching an antitrust investigation into CAA.
This created enormous pressure for the agency.
What did America’s industry giants fear most?
Number one was not the IRS.
It was antitrust investigations.
Leaving aside examples from other industries, Hollywood alone had already experienced the devastating consequences of the old Paramount Decree, which had once plunged the Hollywood film industry into years of stagnation.
Meanwhile, Michael Ovitz, who had already temporarily set aside negotiations between Sony and Columbia Pictures, returned to CAA to personally oversee efforts to weather the crisis.
Tom Hanks proved relatively easy to persuade.
After all, he had never previously received profit participation deals, nor had he ever even earned a five-million-dollar salary.
For Big, which had grossed over one hundred million dollars, Hanks had earned only two million dollars.
Moreover, he highly valued this collaboration opportunity with Eric, so he agreed to CAA’s revised conditions.
Tom Cruise, however, stated that he wanted time to consider the matter.
The very next day, his “consideration” produced a result.
Together with his agent, Paula Wagner, Cruise announced that he was leaving CAA.
Tom Cruise had long disliked the sensation of being manipulated like a chess piece.
For a hyper-energetic superstar with an intense desire for control and exceptional capability, such a feeling was extremely difficult to tolerate.
Additionally, the success of Rain Man had shown him another path:
Working directly with film studios through personal profit-participation agreements.
This approach could bring him far greater benefits.
At the same time, Cruise also hoped to obtain greater control over film production itself.
If he wanted those things without being constrained by an agency, then breaking free from CAA became inevitable.
And for CAA, Cruise’s departure was no different from plunging a knife straight into its back.