HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

“When I was 20 years old, I dropped out of college and got a job as a chauffeur to an old‑school Hollywood producer. My main responsibility was to drive him around town, but he would take me to his meetings and introduce me as his associate. And he would encourage me to speak up.

He had a script that he was developing at 20th Century Fox. We had many meetings there. After two years of chauffeuring, I wrote to the Fox executive I had grown to know during those script meetings and told him I was looking for something new.

Not realising that I was this producer’s driver, the executive set up an interview for me with the president of the studio as a candidate for a job as the newest studio executive.

To my surprise, when the president of the studio found out I had dropped out of college, we got into a debate about the importance of college degrees. It ended with me telling him, “You kind of sound like my mother.”

And he hired me.