Guy Oseary, Madonna's manager, talks about his two passions: Israel and technology. He stresses that a 17-year-old heading to Hollywood should know their purpose before chasing connections, and says his own happiness comes from daily creative variety, family, and choosing his projects.
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Hi guys, how did you feel about this conference?
Well, I support obviously Israel and technology and growth and ideas, innovation, new minds, new ideas. It's nice to see growth and support of my 2 favorite things, technology and Israel.
Tell me a secret, are you working on something right now?
You know, I'm continually looking for new things and Yossi Vardi, who's who's right next to me, who's a friend, and I talk about lots of different opportunities, and I'm building lots of different companies. You know, it's— every day has its new opportunities. You know, I mean, the thing I'm working on the most is looking for new ideas, looking for— and if there's a new idea and there's a connection to working with some entrepreneurs in Israel, that's very exciting for me. So I'm really here to listen and meet people.
When was the last time that you Were in Israel?
I think it was maybe six months ago. I'll be back in a few months, see my mom.
So the whole family is there?
Not my whole family, but an important part of my family. My mom.
So what?
Ima.
Ima, of course. כי אין בעולם אהבה כמו של אמא.
בדיוק.
מה האוכל שאתה הכי אוהב לאכול בארץ?
Oh my! I love Israel's food. There's a restaurant. There's many restaurants that I like, but my favorite food is is. Real Israeli food. Israeli salad, kebabs, hummus, tahina. So it's my favorite food.
So what do you call home?
Well, my home is— there's 2 homes. My home is here and my other home is in Israel. And they're 2 totally different kinds of homes. And, you know, you never leave either of them. You know, if I'm traveling the world, I have them both in both pockets.
What's the first thing that you do when you land in Israel?
I call my mom. Everything's my mom, you know. She's waiting for me. So I land and I get in the car and I go to my mom's house and have a— she makes me a beautiful lunch and, you know, it happens right away. There's not a lot of time between landing and hurrying to my mom's.
Okay, so what's the next location that you go in when you come into Israel?
The next location? What do you mean?
Where's your favorite part in Israel when you go to visit?
Well, I like Tel Aviv because it has such a great— look, I was born in Jerusalem, so Jerusalem is a strong connection. But I enjoy Tel Aviv. My mother lives there, and it allows me to also walk around, go to the beach, you know, just be part of the culture of what people are getting into and, you know, What they're liking, what they're— it's an immediate— connects me immediately to the culture of Israel, Tel Aviv.
I'm going to ask you something complicated because I like it. Let's say I'm going to give you the opportunity to come here and you're only 17. What are you going to do?
17, coming where?
Coming here to Hollywood.
Well, I started when I was 16. I started working with Madonna when I was 17. You know, You really— it really depends on what you want. You can do— I came— we didn't have any connections when I came— when we came here. So there's a lot of opportunity here to reach your goals, but you have to know what you want. So if a 17-year-old is coming here knowing what they want, they're a lot better off than coming, you know, even with a lot of connections but not knowing what they want. important to have a real point of view.
If somebody's going to offer you to produce a Hollywood movie, are you going to take the challenge?
Oh, I've produced, I've executive produced, I've done all those things. So you mean— what do you mean?
I mean like a huge project to dive into the The production issues and the little things and put everything together.
No, I'm— there are people who do that and that's what they do, that's their job. I have other jobs. I would never— that wouldn't be a good— I wouldn't be right for that job. I can't do— sit on and be part of a production all year long. But— and there's people out there who would be much better at it than me. I'm more of an ideas guy, creative, collaborative, but not— I wouldn't be the guy you want going every day to the set.
Okay, take your time and tell me what's your favorite movie, maybe top 3.
Oh, that's a hard one. I always loved Reservoir Dogs. I thought it was— I love The City of God. Schindler's List, obviously The Godfather. You know, there's some predictability. There's some— I like a lot of the greats.
You know, as a producer also, when I'm sitting in the editing room, you know, I'm so happy. What makes you happy doing work?
I mean, well, what makes me happy is that I can wake up every morning and do something totally different than the day before. And that I have the ability to do that. So that makes me happy, that I could be as creative as I want and only work with things I want to work on. That's a very fortunate place to be. And my children, my family make me happy. So that really is—
What's the name of your children?
Mia and Oliver.
They know how to speak Hebrew?
They know more Portuguese than they know Hebrew. The mom, she's from Brazil. Yeah. Yeah.
What's her name?
Michelle.
So Michelle, And the children kisses from Israel. Your mom, Gila. She get the chance to see the grandchildren?
Oh yeah, of course. We saw her a few weeks ago.
So every every year twice as much as we can.
We don't count. We just do it.
Believe me, we in the same situation. I'm here too.
Okay.
So I want to wish you a lot of good luck and thank you for coming. Thank you for this interview and shalom from Israel.
