“Hurt Locker” Star Coming to “24 Hour Plays”
With ten spots open for Best Picture this year, a lot of people on the “inside” agree on one thing: if Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” has the lead right now, number 6 on the list would be Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker.” And the two actors from that film, Anthony Mackie‘(pictured) and Jeremy Renner, have taken off like rockets.
On the Mackie front, his manager, Jason Spire, is not surprised. Spire ‘ who’s just a tad age-ineligible for The Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Generation” feature today ‘ runs Inspire Managment from Los Angeles. He found Mackie at Juilliard several years ago. They’ve gone from nowhere to everywhere in a short time thanks to Mackie’s talent and Spire’s clever doggedness.He’s sort of the “E” character from “Entourage,” but with the actual education and training. (See more about Mackie in the “Next Generation” feature.)
On Monday, Mackie ‘ who’s currently filming “The Adjustment Bureau” with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt ‘‘will join a bunch of stars in “The 24 Hour Plays.” That’s the annual charity event in which two dozen actors and a dozen writers and directors hatch a bunch of plays overnight and then put them on. Mackie ‘ who’s credits now include “A Soldier’s Story” on stage in New York, and “Half Nelson” with Ryan Gosling ‘ is also set to play Jesse Owens in a biopic sometime in the next year.
Spire does not stop there. Besides Mackie he’s got the other hot guy of the year, Oscar Isaac, currently filming Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” with Abbe Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Carla Gugino and Jon Hamm, among others. Isaac also is about to arrive as the star of the outsize historic adventure “Agora” with Rachel Weisz and of “Balibo,” the exciting and important film about East Timor’s crusading political acitivist ‘ and now president ”Jose Ramos-Horta. If that’s not enough, Isaac plays Prince John in Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe.
Spire is tireless, and self-made, which is kind of refreshing. A Berkeley grad, he worked his way up at CAA and ICM before joining the Gersh Agency in New York. Besides Mackie and Isaac, he’s got some other well known faces hard at work. His client, the stunning young’ Chilean actress Cote de Pablo, has become a favorite on CBS’s top rated “NCIS.” Another Spire beauty, Rutina Wesley, is a knockout on another hit, HBO’s “True Blood.”
And somehow, with all of that going on, Spire is everywhere. Last summer, living out of a suitcase, he was in attendance on opening when Mackie appeared with Shakespeare in the Park in “The Bacchae.” On Monday, you’ll see Spire up front and applauding hard for Mackie when he joins Billy Crudup, Sam Rockwell, Emily Mortimer and a bunch of well known names including Hollywood imports Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher in “The 24 Hour Plays.”
Mackie, Isaac, de Pablo, Wesley: seems like if you want to be a hot young actor in the business right now, you need a manager like Jason Spire. Or maybe, actually, Jason Spire!
