5 Failsafe Producing Tips From Hollywood Legend Jerry Weintraub

3. Keep your talent grounded.

Weintraub has handled megastars on both the music (Sinatra, Presley, John Denver) and movie (Clooney, Roberts, Brad Pitt, Sylvester Stallone) spectrums, adhering to one guiding principle throughout. "They're guys," he said. "I talk to them exactly the same way I talk to you. They talk to me exactly the same way I talk to them. I don't talk to actors or directors or writers or singers like they're children. They're successful people who have something to say, and I help them say it. And I put them in a place where they can get their message out, whatever it is.I never sat down with Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra and saw this 'star.' They're friends of mine. They're people I worked with -- my colleagues. [...] I require more pampering than they do!"

4. Slow down!

While some might argue that the neverending awards quest compromise how, why and when we see and judge certain films, Weintraub has another theory. "I think what compromises things today is the Internet -- the quickness, the premature ejaculation and such," he said. "Everything has to be done yesterday and not today. You don't have time to think it through because of the technology. When I was a kid and I was making films, it used to take three days to send a piece of film out -- get the negative, send it to the lab, play with it... We do it in a millisecond now. I don't think the creative energy that we put into films in the old days is around now. Once in a while you get a great film like The King's Speech, which is worthwhile and they obviously took their time on. You couldn't rush those actors through that. But you could rush one of those guys in a suit with a patch on it flying over New York. You can rush that."

5. Whether at the box-office or behind bars, listen to your audience.

To Weintraub's previous point, he's not necessarily complaining about Hollywood standards themselves; needless to say, what happens behind studio doors is a lot different than what happens outside them in the culture at large. "The 'business' part of 'show business' means: 'Make what people want to consume,'" he said. "The consumer dictates what's made. They don't realize they do, but they do. And if they go out and spend $500 million watching Batman, they're going to get Superman next. And if they're going to spend another $500 million watching Superman, they're going to get The Green Lantern next. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the consumer that dictates -- not me, not the studio."

And despite what seems hot now, always be prepared to adapt on the fly. "I went to talked to a bunch of prisoners once -- about 150 prisoners," Weintraub said. "And they were killers and hard-time guys. I started my rap about my movies, and they couldn't give a sh*t about what I was talking about. They didn't care about never hearing the word 'no.' And then somebody yelled out, 'Tell me about Julia Roberts's tits!' So I did a lecture on tits and asses and beautiful movies stars. They loved that! I was a smash!"

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