Agents and Managers I

After the Universal executives had their turn, the unwanted visits became less pronounced. Only representatives came to convey the same meaning as Wasserman, be completely neutral, or have the same intention as Disney.

It had become ubiquitous and Alexander became uninterested in most of the meetings. The filming crew also whispered amongst themselves about what was going on but never really intervened with how the big men played.

After a few rule-breaking trespassers had their go at the Inuyashiki filming, there were still people who knew how to respect schedules and gave proper decorum.

The only example of this is David Geffen who came with the technicalities of the 99 soundtrack and every other recognizable musical accompaniment used in the Kid Psychic movie.

Little Alex never really cared for the details of their meetings but at least he had a fair few additions of bucks in his restricted account.

This restricted account was made to follow some child actor protection law. Apparently, a child actor of the past was wiped clean of his earnings during his career as a child actor and wasn't able to reap the rewards of his efforts.

The Coogan Law was made after Jack Coogan was conned off his money by his handlers.

He was a poor soul but he was the reason that the adult Creeds were able to keep their little devil at bay from terrorizing others.

They never really touched any of the money that was rightfully earned by their little junior, however, a spending limit was implemented for the boy.

It was like setting aside pocket money from the little devil's own reserves, of course, they also gave allowance from time to time.

Alexander never really used his money, so it was a calm before the storm situation for the adult Creeds that knew of his potential.

From the calculations on Alexander's head, the money in the account had a bigger dividend from Geffen's music industry than his actor's pay. However, he still had earnings from his works as a screenwriter and a de facto producer of a genuine blockbuster.

Granted, he chose to opt for lower actor's pay to not burden the film budgets. But the odd representation of his earning from the pie chart made him reconsider a career as a musician.

It was all in passing thought as he has other matters to attend to.

With Geffen always pointing at him during his talk with Mark from the distance, Alexander had to sate his curiosity when the record salesman was gone.

"Dad, what were you guys talking about that man had to keep leering my way as if I owe him money?"

"You know, the usual! Reconsidering another career choice for you and high talking his own record label." Mark answered while fiddling with the business card in hand.

The card had Geffen Records printed on it and subsequent contact information.

"Another one for the pile, I guess!" Mark sighed as he intuitively took the card and piled it together with a card stack already set on his personal table.

Even though all of the filming were done on location and not in the studio, a director like Mark must have a station for his necessities.

Too bad everything on his table was filled with business cards from freelance agents and talent agencies.

"Alexander, you aren't considering having an agent, would you? At least, the earlier you change your mind, the earlier this card mountain madness would stop." Mark sighed as he did not doubt that this pile would continue to bloat.

"What about you, Dad? If you pick your own agent or whatever, just tag me along." Alexander said while closing in on the table shuffling through the cards to find familiar names. "To be honest, I don't like agents because they leech off my money when hired. We don't even need an agent when we make our own auditions and projects ourselves."

"At some point, these agents would just be a decorative person much like how Ms. Davis is just my name piece babysitter or nanny or paid guardian."

Mark nodded at that. "What about some advertisement deals, interviews, and all the other agent-actor conundrums that you would have to go through? Maybe there would be a role in other movies that you would like and it's outside of Cosmic."

"No, I don't want those advertisement stuff. I'm better off with my time spent on drawing storyboards and writing scripts, making my own movies for myself is more than enough." Alexander answered while his attention was able to spot a somewhat would-be-famous agent. The card said M. Ovitz and the king behind the scenes of Hollywood are still in his starting phase.

"What about managers, then?" Mark gave his proposal, only to be turned down.

"Maybe not now. I'm still a kid and the manager would be able to snoop around my work and my true personality if we would want our teamwork to flourish." That made the boy look toward his father and ask. "I haven't asked this before but don't you have an agent when you were working for other production companies? How come I've never heard of the person?"

"Well, my first agent is your mom, Alexander. So, calling agents leeches is like calling your mom a leech as well." Mark guilt-tripped his little son with mischief. "Frankly, my second agent is a truly unreliable professional, so he could be among the leech agents you speak of. By now, he is fawning over my success and wants to leech off of me again."

"No fair! I had no idea. You never talked about mom to me." Alexander protested when thinking about the emotional stuff. His mother is like a blank slate to him who was kept in the dark about who she was. "Are you bringing this up because you want your love story of talent meets agent to happen to me as well? Dad, I'm just a kid?!"

"Haha! Says the kid who would grab a random girl as his girlfriend just so he could joke about going independent." It was rare to have his son on the losing side of an argument, so the triumphant father gloatingly laughed.

Alexander and Mark's laughter rang from the director's base camp, making the crew envious of their relationship and the fact that the constant threats never seemed to disturb them at all.