Film producer Will Packer knows a little something about unlikely rises to the top. The self-taught producer behind films like Straight Outta Compton and Girls Trip opened up in our latest episode of Blueprint and explained you can't always rely on Hollywood executives to tell you what works and what doesn't.
Packer cited Kevin Hart's meteoric rise as an example of listening to the voice of the people, and not Hollywood suits.
"Hollywood had this perception of Kevin Hart like, yeah, he's a supporting actor that's been around for a while, he tried to have his leading man moment, Soul Plane bombed, his sitcom bombed, he's not a leading man," he said. "Whereas in real America, people were watching Kevin Hart videos on YouTube, on bootleg, over and over again."
He continued, explaining how paying attention to rising stars away from the Hollywood spotlight is really important to his work as a producer. "My son and his friends, they were watching Kevin Hart videos over and over, and I was like when did Kevin Hart become a thing? They were like, 'Bro, you late,'" Packer said. "That meant that you didn't have numbers that Hollywood could see, to say oh, look at somebody that's rising up the charts. It's really about making sure I have my finger on the pulse of real people."
You can watch a clip from the interview of Packer up top our full interview here.
