Rob Weiss : Success In Stability

Words By Bec Doyle | December 21 2020

Rob Weiss, the guy who brought you Ballers, Entourage and How To Make It In America, hasn’t let this hell of a year slow him down. Sitting on his deck that overlooks LA, panoramic views stretching from Griffith to Downtown, signature cigar in hand; Weiss explains how his career has in a word been “blessed”, but not without its challenges. His first film “Amongst Friends’’ landed him nominations at the prestigious Sundance festival AND garnered theatrical release. “That was just the beginning, it was great, then my career dipped, then my career came back. I’m just looking to stably work until I’m old and then die,” Weiss candidly exclaims. With numerous original projects in development, and a slew of award winning shows under his belt, stability is a modest quest for this accomplished writer and director.

Rob Weiss

Photographs By James Van Alden

At the age of 24, the universe truly aligned for Weiss on his first project. “I wasn’t thinking oh I want to build a career, I was thinking I want to get out of Long Island,” Weiss recalls. Seeing friends go off to college and return to career jobs at Goldman Sachs and the like, Weiss says, “I was already like a washed up club promoter, I just didn’t want to do it anymore, and I was like fuck, what am i going to do with my life?” Attending The Parsons school of design, unsure of what he wanted to pursue, he found himself bouncing between different departments. His love of film and tv is what ultimately inspired him to take the leap of faith and undertake what would be his first foray into the entertainment industry with Amongst Friends.

Starting out with between $40 - $60K Weiss explains, “I was just a kid trying to do this thing, surrounded by really talented young people.” Through good instincts and good fortune, Weiss enlisted two young college graduates he describes as “super young, hungry producers, who had never actually produced anything,” and one thing led to another. Weiss adds “The universe aligned - it was weird.” When money was running out it would almost miraculously appear and save the day, or the movie rather, Weiss explains it as a strength in numbers; “if enough people have this collective drive, whether its conscious or unconscious, and they really share a vision - shit happens - same thing happened with Entourage.”

“I’ve done 3 shows with HBO, all very different experiences,” he says. With Entourage Weiss was predominantly in the writing room, “we were basically writing the final episode as we were prepping to film it,” so he didn’t log much time on set. Though he explains this focus on writing allowed him to really connect to the characters, their development and story arc. Weiss describes Ballers as an all encompassing experience; “I was fortunate enough to get the scripts done prior to production so I could direct also, and I think cause I also directed, I felt more connected to the actors on that show, and the experience overall.” With Ballers wrapping on its 5th and final season last year Weiss reveals, “I would have done fucking 10 seasons of that, you know. I love that show, I loved working with those guys… the whole cast was amazing, so yeah I was definitely sad to see it go.”

When asked of his preference, film or television, Weiss undoubtedly says; “Mypreference will always be to do television at this point.” Explaining the prospect of working on a project for 5 to 10 years is much more appealing than the year or so spent on a film, and starting over again. “There are so many aspects of television that I love - first and foremost would be the opportunity to develop the character long range, to keep peeling the layers, keep getting inside that person, so many different pivots and stories, different arcs, it’s more challenging. I’m not gonna lie, there’s a shit ton more money in it than I think there is in movies right now…. not that I’m getting it, but I hope to.”

Having steadily moved from show to show over the last 15 years, the pandemic allowed Weiss the time to step back and just develop, “I’m accepting all of it, cause we don’t really have a choice, but I don’t welcome anything that happens, that involves people suffering,” he adds. However he does find this new era of pitching much more appealing, “I like zoom pitches, I don’t mind them at all - all those years driving around to places, [zoom] is so much cooler, you just show up on your computer - and you don’t really know who’s on there.” But you’re not going to see any pandemic themed projects from Weiss, “nothing im working on is going to be inspired by covid. Im not shooting shit where everyone is wearing a fucking mask when this thing is over. People are like oh this would be a great pandemic thing - I’m like dude once we’re out of this fucking thing, I dont want to think about it.”

“There are a couple of projects I’m getting ready to take out in the new year, with some pretty high level partners,” he says. And despite being superstitious about prematurely announcing projects, Weiss does divulge an HBO script he’s co-writing with Steve Levinson; working title “Guard Dogs”, set in the world of personal security. He also mentions a series based on the world of Formula 1 racing that’s in the very early stages of development. “The one thing I learned is that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, so I’m developing a lot of different projects with a lot of different people across a lot of different platforms. Podcasts to pods that can become series, docudramas, 1 hours, ½ hours.” Weiss goes on to explain the challenges of writing, “I’m disciplined about writing something when something is due, when I write with partners I’m driven to do it, when I sit down on my own sometimes I just get a little bit in my own way.” Weiss says that for him, knowing where to prioritize, especially when developing multiple shows at once, is important; “for me it’s always quality control - I don’t want to ever sacrifice the integrity of the project.” Weiss keeps it real adding, “ONE of the shows I’m developing WILL happen - if I’m super lucky or “blessed” it will be two or three of them.”

One project Weiss owns the rights to, the infamous book, “Pimp” by Iceberg Slim, a passion project of sorts, has been in the pipeline for a few years, primarily due to timing issues with the network. “We were close to producing it a couple years ago with Michael P Jordan and Idris Elba. I’m like a custodian, I’m not writing it, I’m not directing it, but I think it’s an important piece of work - so I’d love to see that happen.”

Weiss believes once the pandemic is under control, there will be a huge” feeding frenzy”, which means a lot of opportunity for new projects. His advice is to find the platform that best suits what you want to create, to work on your ideas now and start getting them out there. “This WILL end, life will resume,” he concludes.