George Freeman, a partner and senior vice president of talent at WME whose clients included Russell Crowe, Kenneth Branagh, and Dennis Quaid, has been fired after sending an inappropriate email to multiple people within the company, an agency representative told TheWrap.
Freeman’s email contained profanities and “insensitive” comments that disparaged one of Freeman’s colleagues at the agency, according to Deadline, which first reported the news. The email was intended for one person but was accidentally sent to a wide number of recipients.
Neither the content of the email nor the targeted colleague have been made public.
After objections were raised by other WME employees, Freeman apologized to coworkers and to the specific person he insulted for the email. After a review of the matter, Freeman was terminated.
Freeman had been with the company since 2000, when he left ICM to join then-William Morris Agency. William Morris later merged with Endeavor to become WME. His other clients included Ridley Scott, Bill Condon, Ric Roman Waugh, Mark Boal, Bryan Fuller, Jodie Comer, Florence Pugh, Luke Evans, Mark Strong, Richard E. Grant and Teresa Palmer.
Freeman’s exit comes weeks after WME reduced workforce by approximately 20% in response to the economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. “While we are making these difficult decisions now to safeguard our business, we believe in the resilience of our team and our industry,” the company said at the time.