Career Strategy Secrets: Cast a wide net
Is Eva Longoria a shrewder investor than you?
The producers of John Wick probably think so.
Their wider team didn’t know it at the time, but Longoria was the financial fairy godmother who saved their wildly s
uccessful film starring Keanu Reeves from getting sucked back into the production world’s valley of death.
SlashFilm and Laineygossip covered this story–here’s a combined excerpt from their joint coverage:
“We were less than a week out and we lost almost $6 million on a gap financing. We were financing independently to get the bond, but one of the investors couldn’t raise the money in time. Me, Keanu, and Dave had deferred, Basil [Iwanyk, Producer] had maxed his three credit cards, we all had put in everything, including Keanu. And we were still short. So we were shut down.”
CAA then came up with the idea to pitch the project to their clients and see if any would invest in the film. And that’s when Eva came through. Only the filmmakers didn’t know until after production had wrapped!
“She came to the rescue and she provided the gap financing. We didn’t know any of this. Basil never told Keanu or us. Literally less than 24 hours before we had to lock the doors on the movie and walk away, Basil said, ‘We’ve got the investor, we’ve locked the gap.’ We found out by the end of the movie, Basil took us out to dinner, and we were laughing about all the bulls–t that happened, and he said, ‘By the way, funny story, you know who gap financed you? Eva Longoria.’ We were like, ‘What!’ Once the movie got big, Dave and I met Eva. We had never met her before. We took her out to lunch at Chateau Marmont and she was laughing going, ‘I didn’t think it was going to work.'”
“That’s entertainment news, Elizabeth. Who cares?”
As the honorary fairy godmother of Growclass, I’ve seen this phenomenon happen too many times to skip a chance to talk about it.
The Longoria-John Wick story demonstrates how casting a wider net to the people in your second and third degree of acquaintance is often the best way to find the folks you need to open doors, fill a skill gap in your team, or get a financing over the line.
Yet if you don’t reach out, as CAA opted to ask their client base, how will they know what you need?
Make sure your key first-degree connections know where you’re at and how to help. After a coffee chat or virtual catch-up, send a clear and succinct three-line paragraph about what you need. It keeps you top of mind and makes it easier to forge connections on your behalf.
But the magic only happens if you ask.
Has this type of work serendipity ever happened to you? If you’re comfortable, drop me a line and share your story.
