Sigourney Weaver Turns Tables, Lands Her Agent a Role in Netflix Film

In Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) — an upcoming Netflix release that had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival — UTA partner Jeremy Barber has a surprise cameo in the film during a scene at MOMA for the art opening for an artist played by Judd Hirsch.

Though he doesn’t speak, he shares the screen with a slew of legends — Hirsch, Dustin Hoffman and and Sigourney Weaver, playing herself. THR has learned that Barber’s role in the scene goes a bit deeper than his non-speaking cameo. According to a source, Weaver only agreed to appear in the film if her longtime rep Barber joined her onscreen. He clearly said “yes,” which helped out his other longtime client, Baumbach.

And it wasn’t his first time: Barber also appears in the director’s 2010 release Greenberg as “Musso and Frank’s patron.” That’s more credit than he gets in Meyerowitz, which is no credit. Nobody really needed to see their names flash up on the screen inside the Palais when the film premiered on May 21. 

Related Stories

Related Story

Cannes: Netflix's 'Meyerowitz Stories' Gets Four-Minute Standing Ovation at World Premiere

Baumbach’s dramedy, about a fractious clan of New York intellectuals, stars Hoffman as an emotionally withholding pater familias, a sculptor who’s never quite achieved the success he feels he deserves. Emma Thompson plays his latest wife and Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller play his two sons, who are half-brothers and rivals. They reunite when the patriarch is hospitalized. 

The film received a more than four-minute standing ovation, and Barber was right there in line with the rest of the cast in prime VIP seating, front and center inside the famed Cannes theater.

A version of this story first appeared in the June 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.