A source with decades of high-level film and TV business experience weighs in on the astonishing thirty-year ascent of one of show business’ most powerful players, Endeavor and TKO boss and Hollywood’s widely respected top talent agent Ari Emanuel.
“The first thing everybody knows and understands about Ari is that he doesn’t take no for an answer and can be incredibly persuasive when advocating for a client or putting together a complex business vision,” the insider exclusively tells In Touch. “Sure, he’s a fighter, but it all goes way beyond the rather superficial caricature Jeremy Piven performed of him on Entourage. The real Ari is somebody people admire for his work ethic, his never-say-die attitude, and his willingness to put in incredibly long hours and to make good for his legendary roster of talent. Ari is a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, but he still works as a talent agent every single day and is a master at soothing egos and turning promising clients into household names. How the hell does he do it all? That’s the complex part of the question, because Ari himself has had such a unique journey.”
The source notes that back in the nineties, Ari defied the odds in founding Endeavor, a rare start-up agency that eventually went on to absorb much larger competitor William Morris in a stunning takeover that in itself reset the Hollywood talent landscape. The combined entity would eventually purchase the UFC and WWE sports entertainment franchises, and Ari became a bona fide media mogul as a result.
“The only enemies Ari makes are the people who have to be on the other side of a negotiation with him,” the insider adds. “His clients, on the other hand, are incredibly devoted to him and he has retained some of them since the earliest days of his career. There’s this ring of loyalty around him formed by the A-listers who he has represented for decades and who he has made incredibly rich. They all became powerful brand names under Ari’s guidance and the incredibly high standard he holds himself and his colleagues to. Even with his multiple Chief Executive titles, he’s incredibly fired up by going out and performing hand-to-hand combat to optimize deals for his clients. This is a guy who is up before dawn working the phones and doesn’t let up for the next 18 hours. That’s why he’s the king in this town. Calling him ‘The Energizer Bunny’ sells him short a bit because as tenacious as he is, it all comes from a personal place clearly connected to his upbringing in an overachieving family and his willingness to take on the big players in whatever field he has attempted to get in.”
To that point, the source notes that in his early agenting days Ari was happy to take on the biggest names from the older generation of moguls that ran the town at the time.
“Ari was never afraid of the old-time moguls like David Geffen, Barry Diller or Michael Eisner who were in charge when he got into the industry. Ari was –and still is — impossible to intimidate even from his earliest days in the business, and he could stand up to anybody. Long before he finally became a billionaire himself, he emerged victorious in countless David vs. Goliath situations. On the political stage, he’s able to eloquently express his love for Israel while sharply critiquing the country’s current policymakers. When Ari speaks out on this stuff, people listen and people take him seriously. It’s his integrity and tirelessness that have given him staying power, not his sheer, large-scale business success. He’s still a hustler, but unlike a lot of people in Hollywood, he’s never a liar or a hype beast. For better or worse, he calls it like it is.”
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