By Andrew Sanford | News | October 28, 2024 |
Hollywood (I’m using the royal version, so that includes NYC productions) has a long and sordid history with “assholes.” People’s definition of “asshole” may vary (especially if they are speaking literally), but the gist is the same. Some people are just jerks. They can’t have a discussion or make their point without tearing others down. Such people can be overbearing, have little patience, and demand perfection. Because some of them have been able to achieve levels of “perfection,” they have been propped up in a way that feels unacceptable.
The term “auteur” was used almost exclusively to describe these types of people for decades. “I know he almost got the crew killed and the lead actor is twitching in the corner due to abuse but look how good the picture is!” That was the general mentality. These creatives (mostly straight white men) could work with impunity (and still do, in many cases) while openly leaving trails of abused people in their wake because what they were creating was popular.
It should go without saying, but no one should be mistreated at work regardless of the job. Unfortunately, entertainment-based industries fell victim to “hustle culture” which means you will give up your sense of personhood (friends, family, standing up for yourself) as long as it moved you forward in your career, sometimes centimeters at a time. Saturday Night Live is known for having a similar atmosphere, and it seems it used to get to Seth Meyers.
I can say with some confidence that Seth Meyers is a nice person, despite not knowing him personally. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence I could point to. You can watch him in interviews and understand his vibe. He seems like a good dude. My biggest piece of evidence was scores of people at 30 Rockefeller Center working together to surprise him for his 50th birthday. It wasn’t just people from his show, people throughout the building were in on it and looked genuinely thrilled when he was surprised. Ya don’t do that for a jerk.
Regardless, Meyers wasn’t always the calm, collected Zaddy we know him as today. “I feel like I was far more temperamental when I was younger and things ran very hot at SNL,” Meyers mentioned on the Wild Card podcast. “And there were definitely times where my instincts were to say something that would have been relationship-ending to people.” He noted that he sees a lot of that behavior as “shamefully petty” now. It was his friend and Producer Mike Shoemaker who talked Meyers out of his temperamental phase.
“I remember once saying, ‘I’m going to go tell so-and-so he’s a you-know-what,’” Meyers said on the pod. “And he used to always say, ‘It’s a long life. It’s a long life. And the people you work with here, what you are going through with them is going to — even for the ones that aren’t your favorite people — this is bonding. And you will need, for the rest of your life, you will need these relationships to remember what this time was like. And these people, more of them are going to be at your wedding than aren’t.’”
The change worked. Meyers is oft regarded as one of Hollywood’s “nice guys” now, proving you can accomplish great things while not being a dick. “And so I’m very happy I lived by the adage of, ‘It’s a long life.’ Because if it’s somebody you think might be your friend in the future, there’s no reason to burn it down in the present,” Meyers later explained.
Meyers could have been plenty successful if he pulled no punches and continued with his adverserial attitude. Instead, he took good advice and changed. He dialed things back and is better for it. It is an example I wish many would follow.