Be Good and/or Kind

The trick to getting hired and re-hired

Have you ever wondered why some talentless directors or hack writers continually get hired over and over? Is it nepotism? Blackmail? Maybe, but you’ll find surprising amounts of incompetence at all levels, from department heads all the way down to PAs. They can’t all have connections and/ or kompromat.

The more likely answer is something far less sinister: they’re nice to work with.

The Best/Worst Coordinator

First, a story.

One of my favorite coordinators to work for as a PA was a kind, older woman who put a pleasant working environment ahead of everything else. She always had nice things to say about everyone. She’d assume the best of intentions even when people screwed up royally. She had a maternal quality with the PA’s, saying things like “Make good choices!” when we went on runs.

She also was, shall we say, not the brightest bulb in the box.

Once, she sent out a memo saying that there was to be a concept meeting at eleven in the afternoon. The UPM came out of his office a minute later and asked, “By ‘eleven in the afternoon,’ do you mean 11AM or 11PM?”

(This question wasn’t as unreasonable as it might sound. We were shooting nights all week, and it wasn’t inconceivable that the only time we could get all the relevant producers and department heads together was during lunch on set.)

“Technically,” she said, “11AM is afternoon.”

He scrunched up his face and tilted his head a little. “That’s… that’s not how ‘technically’ works.”

“I know what technically means!”

“Technically, you don’t.”

Which was a little mean, but again, we’d been shooting nights and he was pretty tired. And she let the light ribbing roll off her back, because nothing really bothered her.

But here’s the important thing. Even though she screwed up little things like that a lot, he still hired her on the next show. And the one after that. They might still be working together for all I know. Why? Because even though she wasn’t perfect, she was nicer to work with than 90% of coordinators I’ve ever met.

As Jimmy Stewart said in his favorite role as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey:

My mother used to tell me, “In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.” Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.

Good at Your Job Isn’t Enough

In this business, whether we’re on set, in the office, or even covering a desk back at the studio, we spend long hours together with our co-workers. We have to get along, at a minimum.

Some producers have a “no assholes” rule. One showrunner I knew put it this way: “No matter how good you are at your job, we can find somebody else who’s just as good and not a jerk.”

Obviously, it’s better to be both good at your job and a good person. You certainly don’t want to harm the production because everyone likes you so much. There’s an old Hollywood legend that everyone on the set of Mary Poppins knew Dick Van Dyke was doing a terrible accent, but he was such a nice guy, nobody had the heart to tell him.

Now, there is a floor. If you’re really, really bad at your job, you’re going to have trouble finding work. However, if you’re great at your job but awful to work with, something almost as bad starts happening. All the cool producers and department heads will stop hiring you, and you’ll only be able to land gigs working with people who are as big an asshole as you are.

I have to admit I found myself in this situation at one point in my career, looking around the set and realizing I kinda didn’t like anyone there. My focus was always on doing the work, and I spent very little mental energy considering how my attitude affected those around me. It took real some self-reflection to realize what had gone wrong.

I had to make a concerted effort to turn things around, to not have a reputation for being negative or a downer on set. It took some time, and honestly, my career would likely have taken a very different trajectory had I figured this out sooner. Which is why I’m telling you, dear reader, so you don’t make the same mistake.

Becoming a great cinematographer, costume designer, producer, editor, whatever takes time and talent. Being nice is free and easy. Start there, and work on getting better at your job over the course of your career.

Have you ever worked with someone who wasn’t great at their job, but kept getting hired because of their personality?