We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tommy Lightfoot Garrett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tommy Lightfoot , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I knew from the time I was 4 or 5-years-old that I wanted to be in entertainment. Although the first things that came my way were fan clubs as a primary-schooler, and obviously TV hosting during my high school years. It was public relations that interested me the most. Having known so many big stars as a child, I always wanted to be the person to help create that type of stardom for unknown people. So, I began working as a fan club president in grade school, which turned into working for nearly 15 major stars in Hollywood. They all encouraged me to get into PR, which was my passion. I initially started working with soap stars, but it led to primetime television personalities as well as movie and Broadway stars. My principal in the first grade, Dr. Annabelle Lee Warren told me that I was special and had a better future ahead than anyone else in the school and the school system. I had grandmothers who were also encouraging me. So, I reached out to people in Hollywood at a very young age, letting everyone know that I was interested in public relations and marketing in the entertainment industry.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Thankfully, I had a lot of celebrities who wanted to see me succeed at such a young age. Once I was done with school, I ran to Hollywood and figured out that I needed to start working with people on popular shows, but who were not major stars in the entertainment industry. I figured that if I helped someone become a star, that would not only be my first dream, but would set me up to work for and with bigger stars and ultimately TV and movie productions as well. I remember in 1997, after years in the entertainment industry, I had a client who was on a high-rated daytime soap, who had a problem with alcohol and substances. He actually attended an industry event and behaved so unprofessionally that he was fired immediately. This was after years of drug abuse and alcoholism and many warnings from the TV network his show was on. When Entertainment Tonight called for a comment, I knew it was trouble. I along with his personal assistant got in him rehab. But once he came out a few months later, he wanted to get his career back. Many managers and agents told him that he needed to go find another profession, because Hollywood was probably not going to forgive him. So, I helped him get involved in charity work, took him to AA meetings and refused to take on more clients than I already had, so that I could help him and spend the time with him that I needed to. Years later, he’s now on a major soap, not the one he was fired from, but a bigger show. Knowing that I was instrumental in helping someone return to their dream means a lot to me. Find your passion and focus on it and if it is a service, especially in creative arts, it’ll pay off. I now get a lot of calls for crisis PR. However, I make sure that the client actually wants to get help and wants to change before I will agree to work with them.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Seeing a final product come to fruition. It’s an overused cliche in the entertainment business, but it’s true. Working on TV shows is very rewarding. The publicists and PR teams today are part of the inception of everything. When I first started in this field, they would hire the PR team to promote it once it was about to air. Today that never happens. The PR team players are together, making creative decisions even amongst the writing rooms. Because networks and studios want the people out promoting the film or TV show to be aware of every aspect of it. That means you have to have integrity and the discretion not to divulge things no matter how proud of a project or how excited you might be. Luckily for me, unlike most entertainment publicists I have never been asked to sign an NDA. (Non-Disclosure Agreement) Because, I would never divulge anything about a client. That’s the important thing people in this position must understand. Sometimes you have to celebrate a success behind the scenes and out of the public eye. Those are my most exciting times and most rewarding in this business. Knowing that I have helped get a project off the ground and yet celebrating it privately with the cast and crew.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I was a sensitive child, a sensitive teenager. I had to unlearn being overly sensitive. The old saying, “Nothing is personal in Hollywood,” is very true. I had to learn that a person who might be willing to stab me in the back creatively wasn’t a personal thing. So, I was able to finally work with all of the best people in the industry, knowing that it’s a business, we’re working on a project and that if they did something that I didn’t like or we had a disagreement, that I could just write it off and keep working. In this business, there are projects studios and TV networks invest tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on at times. There’s absolutely no place, no space for my ego or anyone else’s. I had to learn to be able to write things off and just keep moving forward. It’s just not personal anymore to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3092388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_4_q_tommy%2520lightfoot%2520
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommylightfootgarrett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tommylightfoot.garrett.77
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommy-lightfoot-garrett-8558181a9/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LightfootInHwd
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDZ-YSTfwqCnrbVm5fFqKTA
- Other: https://twitter.com/Highlighthwd