Ari Emanuel On His New Memoir, Nikki Finke, Talking To Trump, AI’s Upside & The Hollywood Exec He Hates The Most

Don’t let the kinder gentler Ari Emanuel out there pitching his new memoir fool you.

Despite what you may have read during his media tour for Roll the Calls, the WME Group boss hasn’t mellowed out. The notoriously combative Emanuel is still taking names, making calls, taking no prisoners and, from Donald Trump and Barack Obama, to Nikki Finke to Mike Ovitz, Mark Wahlberg, Patrick Whitesell, Elon Musk Jeffrey Katzenberg and everyone in between, calling out friends and foes. To that, his J. R. Moehringer ghost written memoir from Knopf is in part confession & in part altercation with a lot of big names in the mix & big Hollywood moments as the backdrop.

With David Ellison’s ParaBros merger finally coming to pass this week, Emanuel chatted with me about changing the industry, his old client and former Apprentice host, about AI, and about Deadline’s founder. The TKO executive chair also got in the ring with who in town he has the most scorn for, kinda.

DEADLINE: You write towards the end of the book about Trump’s re-election. You talk about Larry David’s reaction to Trump getting back in office, you talk about others lamenting the election, others happy about it and you say, “I’m serious. I can’t have beef with half my friends. I can’t hate half my country.” Obviously, when people write books, there’s a delay between the completion of the wring and publication. So, with all that has and is going on, I wanted to know if you still stood by that statement?

ARI EMANUEL: You know that people won’t talk to the other side. I love the echo chamber that they want to create. My mother used to say to me, you know, you don’t make peace with friends; you make peace with enemies. I don’t want to live in a cult. I want to live in a society. And living in a society means that you talk to people you don’t agree with, and you discuss with them.

In my household, when we sat down and had dinners, and you would argue your point, you would you would learn things from other side, you would think about it, you would move a little bit, you would, and that’s what a society is, compared to a cult. And I think we have been pushed to this cult level.

DEADLINE: How do you mean?

EMANUEL: I don’t want to generalize, but that’s not how I want to live my life. And I will be consistent. You know, recently I’m a Democrat. Grew up as a Democrat. Voted Democrat. Gave money to Democrats…

DEADLINE: Have a brother who’s running for president…

EMANUEL: (CHUCKLES) I’m not saying that. I am saying I had a conversation with the president of the United States, recently and I talked about the film credit and the television credit. I’m on the other side having that conversation. I’m doing the same thing with senators and congressmen that are not a that are not Democrats of why this is good for America…

DEADLINE: Okay, Ari, there’s no discussion a national film credit is long overdue or that’s a move that that that we as the United States have to put our big boy pants on, like the UK and Canada and others have for the industry. But also, you’re the man who put Mel Gibson’s ass out on the curb for anti-Semitic remarks…

EMANUEL: Guess what? I’m also the man that had a conversation with Mel, when he did all the work, and he realized that he did something wrong. That said, you know something, you can’t punish somebody for one action as long as he does the work, and he did do the work, learning about all the things that he ranted about. I accepted Mel back in, and when Mark Wahlberg called me and I said you should put him in that movie at Paramount, I was happy to do it because I think Mel did the right amount of work. So, what are you talking about?

DEADLINE: I’m talking about children being pulled off the streets on their way to school and thrown in detention camps.

EMANUEL: Well, I can have a conversation, which I have, saying I think you’ve gone overboard to people. I have had that conversation. I have had the conversation about immigrants and all the other things, with people that are on the other side of that conversation. I’m having a conversation, and it could be forceful …

DEADLINE: Yeah …

EMANUEL: …But, that’s the only way you’re going to actually kind of move people in a direction that you agree with. You know elections have consequences. I don’t make those decisions. I voted the way I did, I gave money the way I did, but I do have to have continued conversations with people.

DEADLINE: Now, with the book and you, and this NYC, Chicago and LA mini-tour your doing, there’s a lot to unpack when you talk about childhood trauma, and we talk about the way it plays itself out. Now, having written the book with your ghost, now the book’s out …

EMANUEL: Did you like the book?

DEADLINE: Ari? For real? ‘m a dyslexic with anger management problems in Hollywood. Of course, I f*cking liked the book.

EMANUEL: Okay, good.

DEADLINE: I did think it was a little too long and I also thought it ended a little too quickly. But one thing I thought was so smart was the format.

EMANUEL: The format?

DEADLINE: I love the way you break it up with short to medium sized graphs, very punchy. It was written as a 21st century book, and I think that’s very important to recognize what your audience is, I think a lot of books still pretend that it’s 1984. They don’t realize that they’re writing to an audience that probably are going to be reading their book on a tablet. That are going to be reading it in a way that they read TikTok items, and posts on X or on Bluesky. So, I thought that was very smart decision.

To that, now you’ve written this out, it’s officially out there in the world Tuesday, has there been any change of the way you feel about the way your life has unfolded?

EMANUEL: Listen. My mom and dad gave us great moral base and structure. I love my brothers to no end. I couldn’t even describe, you know, my faith in them, belief in them, and love for them. On the other side, you know, I was a guy trying to figure out my identity and my place, as and I think they probably had the same thing. But I can just talk about it as it relates to me. And you know, I’m comfortable now.

DEADLINE: Really?

EMANUEL: Yeah. At one point in the book, Doctor Calm says to me, you know, and I remember this moment. He says, “You know, back in the ’50s, people used to say people that made a lot of money or successful businessmen were smart.” For whatever reason, that little phrase kind of hit me, I was then on a journey to kind of be confident enough and comfortable enough in who I was. I’m a lot more comfortable now in who I am, what I’ve achieved. It takes a certain amount of, you know, endurance to do that, and also brains and EQ and all the other attributes that I have that are, I think, a definition of intelligence, and so I’m comfortable now.

DEADLINE: In the book, you mention on a number of occasions, our mutual acquaintance and the founder of Deadline, Nikki Finke…

EMANUEL: Yes …

DEADLINE: You admit the now open secret that you leaked details of what was going on at William Morris to her as you and Endeavor moved to take it over. You talk about the mutually beneficial relationship you had with Nikki, it’s up & downs. And, at one point in detailing an expensive real estate mess that Jim Wiatt dumped on the newly merged agency and your efforts to undo that mess, you quote Nikki directly with “We all know that Ari Emanuel is an asshole, but we also thought he was at least a smart asshole.”

Why did that quote stick with you?

EMANUEUL: I don’t know. It just kind of …it was our relationship. You know, with current people that write in the media space, I don’t ever fault them for having to write tough things if we screw up or if I personally screw up — as long as we respect each other, and we respect what each other do.

Nikki, she was a trailblazer.

I respected what she was, and she had an unbelievable insight. And I did appreciate her making that statement to me at the time.

DEADLINE: You’ve talked a lot in the book also about the decades you’ve been in the industry, as one would expect. Unlike a lot of memoirs, you come back to again and again the downturns, the Great Recession of 2008, the writer strikes, et cetera, et cetera. You show this kind of wheel of Fortune that Hollywood goes through. So, let me ask you: where do you think it’s where do you think it’s going now? Where do you think it’s going to be in an industry that’s all about change, what is the big change that’s coming?

EMANUEL: I would say to anybody that generalizes like Charlie Bluhdorn, the Gulf and Western CEO did 5o years ago that the movie business is over, or anyone saying it 12 years ago, five years ago, or whenever, the movie business is over: the movie business is not over.

When we started the business, they said packaging was over and dramas were over, and half hours were over. Not true. The movie and television business and entertainment, and that covers from social to podcast, the news, the sports, and live is only getting stronger. But it is changing.

DEADLINE: How?

EMANUEL: You can make movies for less money, and you can make a lot of money. People are now going back to the movie theater. There’s a generation now starting to drink more and going to the movies, and so, you know, all these kind of grand pronouncements are all bullshit. Here’s the one thing that I think is always going to be true: we’re going to have more time on our hands now because of AI. We’re going to need stories, we’re social animals. We need to need to entertain ourselves, and that’s going to the movies, that’s seeing television shows, that’s listening to podcasts, that’s going to events, that’s going to music, that’s going to sports, and that’s only gonna grow.

DEADLINE: Sounds very optimistic.

EMANUEL: Look, there’s going to be dislocation because of AI. Also, movies are going to cost less because of production ability, and that’s a good thing. I don’t think creators and stars, whether it be writer, director, actors, are going away. I just think that they’re going to be using their legs instead of walking. They’re going to be using their legs on a bicycle, riding faster, and so that’s a good thing I think that’s a very good thing.

DEADLINE: Okay, lightning round.

EMANUEL: Okay.

DEADLINE: You brought up, Trump and a federal film and TV tax incentive. So, is it going to happen? Is it going to happen this year, or is it going to be all fall apart because of the midterms?

EMANUEL: Look, you have Adam Schiff, who wants it. I’ve talked to people on the right who want it. I’m pushing pretty hard with people and talking to a lot of people to make it happen. I don’t know if it happens by the end of the year, but I’m hoping it does. I think this is one place where I think right and left can come together.

DEADLINE: People said to me over the weekend that Trump now banning CNN and MS Now from the White House certainly makes it hard to be bipartisan, to work with him on this …

EMANUEL: I don’t think that ban’s going to get through the courts.

DEADLINE: You mentioned AI, there’s a lot of concerns about AI. What do you think is the primary guardrail that Hollywood should be asking for to make sure AI doesn’t turn the industry too far upside down?

EMANUEL: I don’t believe AI can replace Ben Affleck, Marty Scorsese, Mark Wahlberg, Aaron Sorkin, David Fincher, Adam Sandler. I don’t. I think it enhances them if they use it properly. So, I’m not concerned on that level. Now there is going to be dislocation with below the line potentially and other things, but we we just have to utilize it properly.

DEADLINE: How?

EMANUEL: To enhance really creative people’s point of view. I also think the audience, like in the book world, they don’t like AI books, I don’t think they’re gonna want to be involved in an AI movie. And you definitely need a principled voice to direct it all, a voice that can create great stories. So, I’m not as worried as everybody else.

As Greg Daniels said when he was getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard: Why do you want to do a series where it’s just me in the room? And, he’s had a lot of the writers in the room and actors in the room with him. He goes: “I do this because I want to be with all those people” I think that’s true. So, will writer rooms go from 12 to maybe seven? Yeah, and there’s some dislocation there, but there’s going to be a lot more shows.

I don’t think a bad thing. I think a good thing.

DEADLINE: Last one, who do you have more scorn for, Barry Diller or Jeffrey Katzenberg?