Universal Studios president speaks

Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios, discussed his path to the top of one of the foremost companies in the entertainment business, along with exciting upcoming movies and the ins and outs of Hollywood, in a visit to campus Wednesday.

Meyer offered his advice to a group of aspiring business leaders, many of whom plan to work hard in college and go to a top business school. Meyer himself followed the opposite path in his rise to the top of the entertainment industry, which he described in a seminar in McCosh and an interview beforehand with The Daily Princetonian.

A high school dropout who joined the Marine Corps at age 17, Meyer used sheer tenacity and the opportunities that came his way to find his way up. His first job in the business was as a messenger at a theatrical agency, "walking the dog and doing the filing and personal shopping" for a secretary at the company.

Meyer worked hard at this low-level job, saying that "hanging in at the worst of times" and not quitting allowed him to take advantage of the opportunities that came his way.

"I don't think the school you went to makes a difference," he told students at a seminar organized by Business Today magazine. "A school like Princeton is an excellent credential, [but] it takes a certain tenacity, a certain personality, a certain kind of intelligence whether it comes from a college education or from the street."

After six years as a messenger, Meyer was hired by the William Morris talent agency. It was a major step into the field in which he would work for the next quarter century: discovering and representing talent.

It would eventually lead to his creation of the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), now one of the top talent agencies in the world.

Meyer and his founding partners built CAA from a "mom-and-pop" business into an agency that has represented the likes of Michael Jackson and Brad Pitt. After 20 years, he decided to leave the company to "let in an infusion of young blood to reenergize the company."

Based on his experience and connections after running a premier talent agency, he was offered his current position at Universal Studios, where he has worked for the past decade.

Meyer advised college students trying to break into the entertainment industry to "put into each situation as much as you can, because you never know when an opportunity will present itself." No matter how lowly the job, he said, hard work leads to opportunities to take advantage of.

"I tell my kids to treat every situation as an opportunity," he said.

Today, Meyer runs Universal Studios, which he described as a 450-acre "city, with its own fire and police departments and hospital" and more than 4,000 employees.

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Universal is currently focusing on a number of upcoming releases, including a remake of the epic "King Kong" and "Brokeback Mountain," a love story of two cowboys.

Meyer said that "King Kong" deserves its $207 million budget and three-hour running time. He admitted the budget exceeds its initial allotment, though he added that going above-budget is often anticipated in such large productions.

"The story is fantastic," said Meyer, who traveled to New Zealand to check on the movie's progress. "The technology behind this movie is mind-blowing. There are certain experiences, like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park ... or the original Star Wars that are things you've never seen before. King Kong is one of those things you've never seen."

Nonetheless, he told the group that there is always some risk in creating a movie with such a large budget.

"Movies are a volatile business," he said. "If 'King Kong' doesn't work, I mean if it sells far below expectations, it collapses the year for us."

In contrast to potential blockbusters like "King Kong," Universal uses its subsidiary Focus Features to create lower-budget projects, such as the upcoming "Brokeback Mountain." Directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee, the film studies the love between two men "out on the range" who must come to terms with homosexuality in the 1960s American west.

"It deals in an extremely intelligent and sensitive manner with the subject of male homosexuality," he said. "Once viewers get past whatever fears they have, they will find a beautiful and entertainingly done showing."

Though the first responsibility of a COO is to generate profits for his company, Meyer said he "wants to be responsible and proud" of the films his studio creates. He cited "Schindler's List" and "A Beautiful Mind" as movies that "tell the proper story" while still generating revenue, and stressed the need for a balance between loyalty to movies as an art form and making money.

"Every studio is responsible," Meyer said. "We used to get away with [lower-quality films] but now we can't trick our audience." But, he added, "[i]n order to support artistic endeavors, we must have commercial endeavors to fight another day."