Boss-Zilla! describes what it’s like to work for Hollywood producer Scott Rudin, who has gone through 250 assistants in five years:
The producer — who once forced an underling to tape a sign defining the word ‘anticipate’ in huge letters above his desk — says that when he asks follow-up questions about work, assistants often look back at him ‘like I’m speaking Urdu.’ He tells them, ‘When I ask you these questions, have an answer ready. Then I would think you’re intelligent.’He is also known for a wicked sense of humor: When one assistant routinely sported ink-stained shirt pockets, Mr. Rudin bought him a half-dozen expensive dress shirts at Bergdorf Goodman, which he then had an intern spot with ink blotches.
The atmosphere drives assistants to perform remarkable tasks. In May 2004, for instance, director Stephen Daldry was climbing in the Himalayas when Mr. Rudin became desperate to show him a new screenplay. After an assistant got the pages into the director’s hands in Nepal, Mr. Daldry says he later asked Mr. Rudin in amazement, ‘How did you find me?’ (An assistant got Mr. Daldry’s office to say where he was vacationing, then hired a specialty courier service to take the script to Kathmandu.)
In 1992, L.A.-based assistant Adam Schroeder was asked to deliver an offer to author Terry McMillan, whose best-seller ‘Waiting to Exhale’ was the subject of a bidding war. Mr. Schroeder says he flew to San Francisco on the Fourth of July, then drove to her suburban home, where she answered the door in a bathrobe. Even after Mr. Schroeder helped the writer’s little boy search for a lost rabbit, Mr. Rudin didn’t get the film rights. The loss didn’t get Mr. Schroeder fired. He now operates his own production outfit in Hollywood. Ms. McMillan declined to comment.
Other times when things go wrong, Mr. Rudin lets loose. Former assistants say he sometimes vents his anger by throwing phones and office supplies, prompting assistants to take precautions. Some feared Mr. Rudin might hurl an easily accessible framed picture on his desk, so they surreptitiously moved it out of his reach. Others measured Mr. Rudin’s phone cord so they could keep the appropriate distance. ‘The rookies often stood too close,’ remembers Mr. Evans.