Ari Emanuel on Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Mixing Business with Politics
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How did Ari Emanuel rise from the mailroom to run the world’s biggest talent agency?
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The Art of the Deal is the title, of course, of a famous book by Donald Trump. But if you really want to know how deals are done, particularly in Hollywood, Study the career of Ari Emanuel. Emmanuel runs WME. One of the biggest talent agencies in the industry. And you may remember him, or the character based on him is In the HBO series Entourage, the abrasive, hot-tempered, profaned Hollywood operator called Ari Gold. Emmanuel has overseen the careers of Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Meghan Markle, Martin Scorsese, and The Rock. His entertainment machine now includes World Wrestling Entertainment and UFC Fighting League. Theaters on Broadway and in London, a ticketing company and much more.
That global empire has put him very close to some of the most powerful people in the world, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In a new memoir, Ari Emmanuel describes the rage that fuels him, and he claims to make 300 phone calls every single day. We spoke this past week. Let's talk about what an agent does. Nobody outside of your little world and maybe my little world knows they can name a single agent. Until you, maybe. And the first time they could name an agent was when they were watching the HBO show Entourage, and there was this guy, Ari Gold, who was filled with Um not just spilkas, I would say, which, you know, a ants in his pants, but also an ongoing rage. You
know what other class I took at Harvard? Business ethics. I don't steal other people's m Clients. But in your case, I'm going to make an exception. I'm going to take everyone. Your B-level sitcom stars, your reality TV writers. When I'm done with you, you're gonna be rapping sideshow freaks.
That was clearly based on you. And I want to know your relationship to Ari Gold. Well, first
of all At the time, I never watched the show. I you say this in the book. I it's very hard for me to believe. No, it's c I I think I watched The first episode gave me complete anxiety. And then it came out on Sunday nights. The storylines at times were way too close because it's the business and they they got that down. I had not met Jeremy Piven. And who's playing Ari Gold? Who's playing Ari Gold? And he was in first of all, incredibly funny. Had the one-liners. I don't know how he did it, but he captured my intonate all all my attributes at the time that were Good and bad and ugly. Right? How would you
describe this?
Um fast talking, trying to get to some end, representing your clients, but also having a lot of conflicts. And not not only with the client situation, but emotionally himself. And um
They're just funny. So you didn't go through a moment of, oh my God, I'm I'm seeing myself portrayed on on television. I did. I like myself, I don't like myself. Yeah, good, bad and ugly. All right. Th this book that you've Written together with a a ghostwriter, J.R. Moringer, who worked with Prince Harry and Andre Agassi. He's the best at this in the business. We'll talk about how you work together with a ghostwriter. But there's a lot of rage in this book. And at the beginning, you write this in conjunction with J.R. Every story starts with rage. And every story, one way or another, ends up there. And you also write rage is both categories. Catalyst and metric of desire. Uh All right, most people talk about rage as a bad thing.
You know, it it are you saying it's a good thing or it's a characteristic thing of your being?
First of all, JR or is it
or is it a weapon that you deploy professionally?
JR is an incredible human being, made the process as nervous as I was really easy and I think one of the great human beings. My life has been a situation where I had the smart brother, Ezekiel Emmanuel. Mm-hmm. I had the other smart brother medicine and my other brother who's in politics, Rahm Emanuel, and then I was the third. And I had dyslexia.
What role does ‘rage’ play in Ari’s business strategy and decision‑making?
uh ADHD mm and thank God for my mother that she said, I don't care what all these people are saying, you're going you're reading, you're going to college, you're gonna be successful.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
How did Ari Emanuel rise from the mailroom to run the world’s biggest talent agency?
0:02–4:39
2
What role does ‘rage’ play in Ari’s business strategy and decision‑making?
4:39–8:22
3
How did Ari’s early life, dyslexia, and family dynamics shape his career?
8:22–16:13
4
Why does Ari describe his relationship with Elon Musk as ‘incredible’ despite controversy?
16:13–24:37
5
What does Ari think about Donald Trump’s self‑enrichment and political conduct?
24:37–31:59
6
How does Ari navigate the ‘shades of gray’ in doing business with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman?
31:59–32:05