My guess would be that the studios view the agents more as talent aggregators[1] and are probably very difficult to deal with unless one has one. Similar to ho

My guess would be that the studios view the agents more as talent aggregators[1] and are probably very difficult to deal with unless one has one. Similar to how in tech as a contractor you can't deal with many companies without going through a contracting firm. (i.e. larger companies often won't deal with independent contractors directly) In both cases, the talent is viewed as a commodity and the middlemen both deal with some of the 'people' headaches and decrease the individual negotiating power of the talent unless/until they manage to break out as a singular talent. So in many ways, agents these days appear to really be contracting firms with (historically) a bit more transparency as to what their cut is. [1] Note that the 'packaging deals' referenced in the article seems to confirm this notion.