[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Sammy Horowitz, Action-Actor, Stuntman, Playwright, and Screenwriter: I didn’t know this. I thought I’m going to get an agent and then this agent’s going to get me here and get me here…no, no, no. It doesn’t work like that.
Film Courage: How important is it for a beginning screenwriter to find an agent?
Sammy: It’s not important. There’s so many things I wish I knew when I was starting out that I know now. I would have cut off my pinky to get an agent when I was just starting out because I thought that was what’s going to do it for me. It’s not.
I used to cold email, cold call/cold email agents. I’d get the emails for all the big agencies, all the mid-tier agencies. everybody. One out of 10 would respond to me. One out of a hundred would say Yes, send me something but I never got anything from it.
Just to circle back to the actual question and why agents can help you once you’re already rolling, if you’re a hypothetical influencer with a million subscribers or 10 million followers, whatever, an agent can help you, an agent can parlay that into something.
If you’re a screenwriter and you haven’t yet gotten on a TV show, you’re pre WGA, you haven’t had a feature film made with a budget or a film made that has done something exceptional in a festival or whatnot, agents aren’t interested in you because they’re not going to be able to make money with you.
One of my really good friends is an agent at one of the big agencies but it is what it is. I didn’t know this. I thought I’m going to get an agent and then this agent’s going to get me here and get me here…no, no, no, it doesn’t work like that. No, you got to do and even when you have an agent a lot of times you’re getting the leads, a lot of times you’re sure good agents are awesome and get you great meetings and get great general meetings and great pitch meetings and things like that and they’re sending you out to the town but oftentimes you’re also doing a lot of leg work.
It’s much more important to get a manager, it’s way more important, especially when you’re starting to get a manager because a manager is much more likely to take a chance on you. They’re looking at the big picture. Agents are looking like Okay, cool, how can we profit, how can we make this work? Who can we…(Watch the video interview on YouTube).
About:
Sammy Horowitz is an award winning action-actor, stuntman, playwright, and screenwriter from Chicago. Before moving to Hollywood, Sammy was a member of a predominantly Latino street gang and spent almost a decade in prison. He then went on to be a bouncer and doorman at nightclubs, a stick up man, a drug addict, an M.M.A. fighter, and eventually a full-time professional boxer who fought all over the country. Sammy is one of the only known stuntmen who has went on to write on television. His play, Musket and the Rat premiered in January 2020. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actor Sari Sanchez.
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