Producer Teddy Zee:
Hollywood Veteran
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THE 130 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS Teddy Zee GS: So you're the one that's courted.TZ: It's a two-way street. Now when I call, it's not just, “It's Teddy Zee -- do him a favor since we have a relationship with him.” Now Teddy Zee is offering something. He's offering a piece of the magic. GS: Your name seems almost synonymous with agenting. TZ: The only reason it's synonymous with agenting is because there was a TV show called The Amazing Teddy Z and the character was an agent. And in truth, I've never been an agent in my life. The creator of that TV show, Pete Wilson, had an office upstairs from me and just loved my name and borrowed it. That's why it's been that way. GS: The Teddy Z thing is baffling for a lot of people. How did you feel about this guy just taking your name? TZ: The funny thing was, I was actually flattered. I had only discovered it two weeks before the show was going to be aired and I read the script and I thought it was great and I called him up to tell him that I thought the script was great. And he said, “Well, wait wait wait! I'll change the name. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” “I honestly wasn't calling you about that. I'm calling to tell you that I thought it was terrific.” I had just changed jobs and I had moved to Columbia Pictures. The company that was producing the TV show. And literally for a year, every phone call ended up stretching out an extra three minutes because I had to explain. And the show didn't last very long and I still have to explain. I'm surprised that many people remember the show. GS: We saw an article by someone who used your name as the embodiment of the hustling agent who starts in the mailroom. TZ: The guy in the TV show was named Teddy Z and the Z was short for some Greek name [Zakalokis]. The real person it was based upon was Jay Cantor. He was an assistant at William Morris and he was sent to pick up Marlon Brando at the airport. Marlon Brando said, “Kid if you're taking the time to pick me up at the airport, then you're my agent.” GS: So you're actually on the other end of the movie business. You've never been on the side of selling talent. TZ: No, I try to sell movies. I basically sell scripts, sell movie ideas, go to the studios and sell. GS: So your day is still primarily selling. TZ: Yeah, working with writers, creating and selling. GS: Your typical day consists of getting meetings? TZ: A lot of phone work, a lot of reading and working with writers. GS: What do you need before you take the final step and go sell to the studio? TZ: A great story, or having a great actor attached or having a great director, something that gives the studio confidence. They say, 'We're going to end up spending millions and millions of dollars. Give me a security blanket. Give me a reason that I can go tell my boss that this is the one we've got to go with.' GS: So now the acting problem is solved for you. TZ: It's true in some respects. But we don't do everything for Will [Smith] to act in and star in. GS: What's your relationship with Will Smith? TZ: I run the production company for him. So all the movie stuff goes through me. GS: Is there much budgeting and costing in what you're doing? TZ: It comes with it, but that's when we're fortunate enough to get the movie made and we go through with the studio. But often we hire line producers to come help us with the day-to-day financial aspects of moviemaking. GS: So you're more on the conceptual, creative side of things? TZ: Yeah. GS: How did you get started in the business? TZ: I started out in personnel at NBC and I quickly got bored of that. I went to see Jeff Sagansky who at the time was an executive at NBC and later went on to run [NBC's dramatic series]. I said, “You've got the greatest job. How did you get this job?” He said, “I don't know how people get it but I went to Harvard Business School.” So I immediately applied to Harvard Business School and was fortunate enough to get in. I came back out, went to NBC and applied for a job and they turned me down. I was in shock. I did the next best thing and got a job at Paramount Pictures as an executive. Little did I know that I'd just gotten a dream job. I didn't have to start in the mailroom. I didn't have to start as someone's assistant. I didn't have to start as a gopher. I was immediately given a secretary and an expense account and I was trained to do the job by some of the most talented and giving people in the business. At the time Paramount was king of the movie business. Beverly Hills Cop, Witness, Top Gun, The Untouchables... I participated in some of those movies, got to work on a lot of them. It was just a great education. Also I started at a time when home video was just starting. The business was just in its infancy. There was a whole new boom that was going on. And that was videotape. It took off again with DVD and it took off again when the international market started becoming 50 and 60 percent of the businsess. When I started the international markets accounted for only 30% of box office totals. It was a go-go age when you couldn't make movies fast enough. GS: How long were you at Paramount? TZ: I was there for five years. GS: Harvard Business School only accepts people with impressive undergrad credentials. TZ: I went to Cornell undergrad. I had a 3.3 GPA. But I was fortunate enough when I was at NBC to become the project manager of something called teletext. It was an experiment that they conducted in Los Angeles. It was very popular in France at the time. It was a way to bring information into people's homes through the broadcast signal on your TV set. You had a decoder and basically you could get the newspaper delivered over your TV set. It was one of the precursors to the internet. It was a combination of journalism and entertainment technology. Because I was involved with running that, I was able to parlay that into an interesting enough experience so Harvard Business School thought, 'Wow, we don't have anyone like that.' I think getting into Harvard Business School you have to distinguish yourself somehow. PAGE 3 |
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