Eli Bush

Eli Bush is an American film and theatre producer and former executive at Scott Rudin Productions.^[1] He is best known for producing the film Lady Bird, for which he co-won the 2018 Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy and was co-nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.^[2]

In an April 2021 Vulture exposé about Rudin's abusive behavior, a former colleague referred to Bush as "sort of Rudin’s Smithers," a reference to the sycophantic right-hand man to Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. Another compared him to the former Vice President of the United States saying "He's like the Mike Pence of the whole operation. He’s shared an office with Scott all day every day for over 10 years.” The same story reported that Bush had "left" Scott Rudin Productions the previous week.^[3]

Biography[]

Bush graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 2009.^[4]

During his tenure working for Scott Rudin Productions, he and Rudin worked on a number of critically acclaimed movies, including Uncut Gems (2019), Annihilation (2018), Eighth Grade (2018), Lady Bird (2017), and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).^[5] On Broadway, he won four Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play: for Death of a Salesman (2012), A Raisin in the Sun (2014), Skylight (2015), and A View from the Bridge (2016).^[6] He also won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2017 for Hello, Dolly! as well as the Tony Award for Best Play in 2016 for producing The Humans.^[6] He was nominated for the 2017 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for co-producing School of Rock.^[7]

An April 2021 story in The Hollywood Reporter alleged numerous instances of abuse from Rudin towards employees, including physical violence. Following the allegations, Rudin announced that he would be "stepping back" to "work on personal issues I should have long ago."^[8]

On April 22, 2021, Vulture scrutinized Bush's behavior in relation to the Rudin scandal:

According to multiple former employees, Eli Bush — who started as an intern and until recently served as a top executive at SRP (with producer credits on films like Lady Bird, Annihilation, and Uncut Gems) — was one of the few people to quickly climb the ranks and stay there. “Eli is an amazing survivalist. Nobody does that job with that much proximity to that ruthlessness without a sense of cynicism. When Scott would leave the office, Eli was one of us — air quotes ‘one of us’ — and then when Scott was back, you’re just on your own. He really fucked over a lot of assistants that just were kind of in his way. He’s in this really ugly machine, and I can’t really empathize with a person who stays there for that long,” said Neisser. “It’s one thing if you’re learning the ropes, and you eventually come to understand, in your mid-20s, Oh, this is bad. I should go. It’s another thing if you really make this your brand.” As another former assistant put it, “It’s like bowling: His job’s to put the pins back up so Scott can go in and knock them back down.” (Through a spokesperson, Bush declined to comment.)^[9]

Filmography[]

Television[]

Theater[]

References[]

External links[]

• Eli Bush at IMDb