‘No talent at all’: top Hollywood agent slams Meghan Markle
One of Hollywood’s most powerful figures dismisses the Duchess: ‘Just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something.’
One of Hollywood’s most powerful figures has dismissed the Duchess of Sussex as a talentless broadcaster after the end of her multimillion-dollar deal with Spotify.
Jeremy Zimmer, who is the chief executive of United Talent Agency, gave his view on the audio talent of the duchess after the streaming giant backed out of its $20 million deal.
Zimmer, who has guided the careers of household names such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Damian Lewis, said he was not surprised that Spotify had parted ways with the couple after one series.
“Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” he told the news website Semafor at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France. “And, you know, just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something,” he added.
Spotify backed out of its deal with the Sussexes because it “expected more content” from the couple and their Archewell Audio team, according to Variety magazine.
Archewell made one series of 12 episodes of Meghan’s Archetypes show and a 30-minute special in 2020, featuring celebrity friends and their son, Archie. Meghan’s Archetypes podcast focused on the stereotypes and assumptions that women are subjected to. It was released last summer and the company was said to have been in talks for a second season before the deal ended.
The couple released a statement with Spotify saying that they had “mutually agreed to part ways”. Afterwards Bill Simmons, a Spotify executive, called the couple “f***ing grifters”, an American word meaning swindler.
Simmons, who is head of podcast innovation and monetisation, criticised the pair on his own podcast, saying: “I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … F*** them. The grifters.”
It emerged on Sunday that the pop star Taylor Swift had declined a personal invitation from the duchess to appear on the podcast, according to The Wall Street Journal. Swift declined the handwritten invitation from Meghan through her representative.
It was also claimed in the newspaper’s reporting that a lack of productivity from the duke and duchess left executives at Spotify and Netflix “underwhelmed”.
Employees and associates of Archewell are reported to have said that the company “often lacks direction and that its founders at times seemed surprised by the work required to finish entertainment projects”.
Sources from the company also said that selecting guests for the podcast was “often fraught”, with Meghan requesting changes late in the process.
It was said that the terms of the Spotify deal had included each of them “voicing and being directly involved in a podcast” but that “Harry, in particular, struggled to land on an idea”.
Harry and Meghan’s deal with Netflix, which runs until 2025, was also scrutinised and the article spoke of a “graveyard” of video projects that were never made.
While Harry & Meghan, the couple’s Netflix documentary about stepping down as working members of the royal family, was popular and Harry’s memoir, Spare, has become a bestseller, the Sussexes are said to have “struggled to make content beyond their own experiences”. They are, however, said to be developing a show for Netflix called Bad Manners, based on Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, the Charles Dickens novel.
Netflix said: “We value our partnership with Archewell Productions. Harry & Meghan was Netflix’s biggest documentary debut ever, and we’ll continue to work together on a number of projects, including the upcoming documentary series Heart of Invictus.”
Spotify did not respond when asked to comment.
The Times
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