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LAURA GORDON: As a woman who's
working in a traditionally male
job,

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you're always
trying to be enough.

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You're trying to be
good enough.

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You're trying to
fulfill that schema

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that you're not really sure
who created.

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You have this archetype

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of the obnoxious
Ari Gold figure,

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who's the agent
who's really aggressive.

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So, as you're becoming an agent,

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you need to navigate,
who am I gonna be?

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And I didn't
necessarily have that...

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that icon on TV to look to.

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MATTHEW BELLONI: The gatekeepers
manifest in many different ways.

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At the bottom level,
it's the representatives.

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In order to be successful,
you have to have an agent.

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You can think of an agency
like the top of the funnel.

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There's the entire universe
of creative people,

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and they all want to get an
agent, they want to get into
that crowd.

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The agencies take those people
and funnel them through

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to where only a few
are then presented

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to the decision-makers
for who gets hired.

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And the agent can
make a difference.

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MAHA DAKHIL JACKSON:
If you're in an agency,

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you know everything that's
happening at every production
company

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and at every studio.

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Therefore, you
have information.

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And information is power,
knowledge is power.

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And when that information
is harnessed correctly,

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that's when we can get creative
and put projects together.

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LINDA LICHTER: So, the agent's
job is primarily information--

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who's got what,
what's hot, what's not,

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who's hot, what the
studios are looking for,

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and try to assemble the pieces
and sell them to somebody.

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The lawyer's job
is primarily the negotiation

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of those deals in combination
with the agents,

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and then the documentation
of those deals.

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LAURA: There are so many things
that keeps this job so exciting.

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You're a little bit of a
manager, you're a little bit of
a lawyer.

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You're a little
bit of a therapist.

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You can be a little bit
of a stylist at times.

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LORRIE BARTLETT: It's like
being on a rollercoaster, right?

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Like, it's exhilarating.

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I think as women, we've
always just had to work harder.

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Um, we don't get things
handed to us.

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You are always showing people
that you're good at your job.

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[photographers shouting]

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MINNIE DRIVER: I made a
huge error very early on,

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in being swayed
by the voices of men

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to leave a female agent

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and to go over
to their side.

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And I thought that--

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and this happens
I think with so many women.

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We throw other women
under the bus

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in order to feel
that we will be protected

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by those men,
and then, of course,

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was utterly discarded
not long after that.

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ADELE LIM: I have had nothing
but the loveliest experiences

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with my agent.

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The issue isn't with
my specific agent.

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I think it's more of a
systemic industry thing.

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LINDA: When I first started
as a lawyer,

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I was the first woman
they had ever hired.

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I was a creature
from another planet.

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I was somebody they did not know
how to relate to in many ways.

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My supervising partner
had assigned me this client

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to do work for,
and the client called him up

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and said, you know, "I must
not be a very important client,

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because you gave me the girl."

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And he had take--
he took the client away from me.

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In the very first
staff meeting we had,

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the other senior partner
went around the room

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and introduced the new lawyers
that had just joined the firm.

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And, "Here's this guy, here's
where he went to law school.

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"And here's Linda Lichter,
here's where she went to law
school.

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Linda, why don't you stand up?"

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And I said, "Can't everybody
see me? Here I am."

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And Monty said, "No, we wanna--
we wanna take a look at your
legs."

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And there was like
this intake of breath...

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[gasping]

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And in that silence, I said,
"Monty, in order for you to do
that,

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I'd have to stand on my head."

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And the whole place--
I shut the whole place down.

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They were all hysterical.
Monty turned bright red.

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And I was in, right?
I was cool.

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LAURA: It's hard to be left out

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when men are getting together,

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because so much of business
gets done

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in social environments.

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There have been times
where all my male colleagues

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go to dinner
and they don't invite the women.

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I remember an executive
producer telling me early on,

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they want to hire
who they want to sit at the bar

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and have a beer with.

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And I think that was what
planted that seed of like,

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oh, I need to learn
how to play golf.

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That didn't really work out.

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It was way harder
than I thought it was,

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and I knew I wasn't gonna be
any good at it.

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It's all about attraction
and leverage, really.

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Because the leverage is,
I can give you this.

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What can you give me?

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Not everybody can pull off
the charisma part of it.

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And that's where key machines
come into play.

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That's where producers
come into play.

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That's where, you know,
agents come into play.

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And the individual desires
of each gatekeeper

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are the desires
that control the abuse.

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RACHAEL HOROVITZ:
Everyone you're dealing with

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has got an agenda
for themselves.

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So, your agent has a
career that they're managing

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with much more focus than
they're managing your career.

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KIERSEY CLEMONS: I specifically
had managers that were acting

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as kind of these gatekeepers.

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And so, the people on my
team that wanted to help me

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couldn't really access me.

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It got to the point
where they were just like,

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"You're too good for this,
and you're too good for that."

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And it would be things I wanted
to do and things I liked.

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But then, the stuff
that I specifically said

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I don't want to do,
if it involved a lot of money,

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all of a sudden,
that's what I deserve,

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"That's what you want."

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LORRIE: We are, in fact,
presenting artists.

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We're not presenting
insurance policies.

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It's not one size fits all.

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So, I think an agent
has to be creative

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on behalf of the client.

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Turn male roles
into female roles,

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roles that are written white,
make them someone of color.

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DIANA WILLIAMS: When you get
that list from that agent

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that only has white
male names on it,

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you pick up the phone
and you call that agent,

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you say, "This
is unacceptable."

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It is ridiculous
that there are so many people

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in hiring positions,
people who are gatekeepers

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who are quite limited
in their vision.

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And those are the people
that need to be out.

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How can Hollywood be progressive

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and talk about
paying women fairly,

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when you don't
talk about equity,

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or talk about paying, you know,
Black and brown folks
appropriately

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when you don't talk
about reparations?

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How can you be progressive
and be an ally,

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and I never hear you
speak of equity?

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LINDA: There's a reason
why the State of California

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has now passed a law that says
you cannot ask people for
quotes.

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Because what that did,
is that if somebody

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was at a low level
because they hadn't negotiated

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or they hadn't been able
to get the kind of fee

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that they should have gotten,
they're not stuck at that level
forever.

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They can go in and say,
"Pay me what I'm worth."

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Part of what I see as my job is
to say, "This is what you
deserve.

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"This is what you should get
because of who you are.

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"And let's go for it,
let's not be afraid to ask

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for fear of getting smacked."

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LAURA: We need to
bring up voices

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that haven't had the same
opportunities of entry.

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And that's on me,
that's my responsibility.

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REBECCA KEEGAN: Once you've
made it through the gatekeepers,

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the next battle is getting
your script into development,

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and that's a whole new
kind of struggle.