Gale Anne Hurd recalls her early film production career under Roger Corman, working 18-20 hour days with no marketing training and sacrificing her personal life. She describes making a deal with Corman before taking the job and leaning on colleagues to survive the grueling schedule.
Chapters
I had to start over and learn something from the very beginning. I had had no training in marketing, so I had to learn the skills I needed. I had to give up a personal life completely. I lost a boyfriend. He wasn't the right guy for me anyway. However, I did one smart thing. I made a deal with him before I accepted the position. I said, Roger, I don't think I'm going to be very good at this. First of all, I have no experience. Secondly, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for me, but if I do this job for 6 months and you have to promise me you won't fire me, in these 6 months that you will then give me a job on the set of a film production. He said, absolutely. So I worked 18 to 20-hour days, 7 days a week and I relied on the kindness of strangers and friends who pulled me through. Who helped me in every imaginable way. And the interesting thing is after all these many years, this is 1978, 1979, we still have reunions of the groups who worked for Roger Corman and toiled away doing the impossible. You had to— you either— you would sink or swim, very much like a startup.
