18 new york | march 2–15, 2020Anonymous in Hollywood“I Was 25, and
Life Was Terrible.”
Five stories from entertainment’s entry level.
As told to Anne Victoria ClarkintelligencerPHOTOGRAPH: BLEECKER STREETWant to anonymously share a story about working in
Hollywood? Email us at [email protected].Julia Garner inThe Assistant.as hollywood realigns itself in the
wake of Me Too, new questions are being
asked about the ethics of power within the
entertainment industry. Last year, a survey called
#PayUpHollywood, examining the treatment of
Hollywood’s assistants, revealed that nightmare
stories were not exactly rare. In an industry that
lacks standards for how assistants’ roles are
defined, let alone compensated, many entry-
level workers reported going without health care
and having to file for unemployment-insurance
benefits between seasons of shows they’d
worked on. As part of a new series, “Anonymous
in Hollywood,” five former assistants shared
their experiences working in the industry.... a TV news anchor:An assistant to ...a television show writer:The executive producer forced me to become
her personal assistant (in addition to my
other job, and keeping the same title and
pay, of course). I planned one of her kids’ birthday
parties, bought makeup bags as party favors for the
girls, and booked her other kid’s travel. Then the
writer’s assistant left, and I filled in while still being the
assistant and making a writer’s PA’s negligible salary:
$750 a week with a 50-hour minimum, no benefits.
When I went on to become a de facto assistant and
writer’s assistant, I wasn’t allowed to ask for more. It
was presented as an expansion of a writer’s PA’s duties.
My boss made me go across town to get her salads for
lunch and ice for her cocktails. One time, she threw
out the salad when I handed it to her and sent me
out for a second ice trip to find ‘actually good ice.’ ”My former
boss is a
garbage human. I
once pulled an all-
nighter rewriting a
speech for him to
give at Yale, only for
him to inform me
the next day that he
expected me to drive
him from NYC to
New Haven. In the
car, he decided to
give me an in-depth
performance
review about all my
flaws—including,
by the way, how
oddly ‘robotic’ I
was, in that I didn’t
seem to show
enough emotions
for a woman.
Meanwhile, I was
attempting to not
drive us both into
oncoming traffic.
Once we arrived,he informed me
that I would have
to find my own way
home. (This was a
Tuesday, and I was
expected at work
the next day.) After
frantically calling
my Yale friends to
find a place to sleep
for the night, he
mentioned that he’d
changed his mind.
I could ride with
him back to NYC
that night, but I had
to take the subway
at 1 a.m. from the
Upper West Side to
Bushwick. I don’t
understand how
a man can treat a
person who has
access to all of his
bank accounts,
emails, and Viagra
prescriptions
so poorly.”