Having held arguably the best position at the Harvard Independent, it is no surprise that Couper Samuelson ’02, former Indy Arts Editor, has gone on to make waves in the artistic world. Now President of Feature Films at Blumhouse Productions, the former Indyite has helped produce some of the biggest horror films of the last few years, including the recent hit M3GAN, a science fiction horror film about the dangers of AI. Last week, the Harvard Independent had the opportunity to speak with him about his time at Harvard and beyond.
Despite an impressive career trajectory, his beginnings at the Indy were quite humble: “We were in the basement of Canaday. It very much felt like a little bit of a feral cat colony that was in charge of producing a weekly paper. It was underfunded, and it felt a little shoestring,” Samuelson said. “But also, it was kind of fun, because that meant it could be a little weirder.” He recalled writing a “hatchet piece” on classmate Natalie Portman ’03 about her film Anywhere But Here, which would have been difficult with “more adult supervision.”
Samuelson already had an interest in film and journalism when he arrived on campus, and the sacred 1969 student weekly was just the place to cultivate his passion. “We had this little mailbox, and we would get free invitations to press screenings. There was this theater in Copley Plaza in Boston that had a screen that would do like before movies came out. And, you know, when you’re a starving college student, and you get free passes to a movie, it was like, the biggest deal of all time. Typically enough was like getting to go to Copley on the T a couple days a week and watch movies. Before they had been kind of soaked into the culture. Before they were a thing.”
During his time at Harvard, Samuelson worked several internships in the entertainment world—with Entertainment Weekly, Slate Magazine, and then Warner Bros, gradually gravitating towards the film industry—but it wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles after graduating that he dove headfirst into cinema.
“I drove my Toyota Camry out [West] in August of 2002,” he said, where he “hit up every single Harvard person whose email address [he] could vaguely find.” He soon got a job at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), stepping into the “very traditional path” of working at an agency.
Samuelson emphasized the importance of the Harvard network in helping him find jobs. “There’s of course a big infrastructure for Harvard kids called Harvardwood. It’s a very cushy landing, if you’re moving into town,” he said, referencing influential alumni such as Franklin Leonard ’00 , who created the Hollywood black List.
“In general, there’s so much fear, and there’s so much luck associated with things [in Hollywood], that if you have something in common with someone, if you have some shared point of reference with a fellow alum, it just makes it a little easier to trust that person and connect with them, for better and for worse.”
After a year at CAA, Samuelson moved into the independent film world, and in 2011, he started working at Blumhouse, where he now serves as the President of Feature Films. At the time, Blumhouse was just starting out as a horror movie company. Since, they have produced some of the biggest films in the horror genre.
Blumhouse produces typically low-budget horror films with massive box office income, a model which has been extremely successful for them. However, they sometimes branch out, notably with 2013’s Whiplash, directed by Damien Chazelle ’07. Samuelson recalled Chazelle reaching out after he had just moved to Hollywood.
“He emailed me out of the blue, a really nice email about some other movies that I’ve worked on. And, of course, flattery, really does work on Harvard people in general. And, so you know, he had made a movie in college, a little black and white movie that was really impressive.” Chazelle then became a “semi successful horror-thriller screenwriter,” through which he got to know Samuelson.
Samuelson emphasized that while the Harvard name may have helped Chazelle make connections, he would not have succeeded without his skill. “He sort of emerged fully formed, like Athena from the head,” he joked. “When he wrote Whiplash, that was sort of an undeniably incredible screenplay. So I was sort of helping him but he also helped me and I think that’s one of the things that people don’t really understand well enough about Hollywood is that it is extraordinarily transactional.” He continued, “I didn’t get Whiplash made out of the goodness of my heart. I did it because he was such a talented screenwriter and so helpful in that way that it was only natural for me to help him.”
Samuelson studied History & Literature and Romance Languages & Literature at Harvard, but he took some classes in Visual and Environmental Studies (now AFVS). He recalled taking VES 50, what is now AFVS 50: Introduction to Nonfiction Filmmaking, a class practically unchanged since his time. He enjoyed the course, saying “it was a very different kind of experience than most Harvard classes. It was really immersive and really intense. And really it was a good simulation for what kind of movie making, which was, which is all encompassing and intense.”
The Independent recently reported on the competitiveness of AFVS class admissions, something which Samuelson corroborated. “I sort of had to bitch my way into VES 50,” he admitted unapologetically. “I guess I’m sort of ambivalent about that […] because I almost view it as kind of a lesson that like, you know, Harvard has tons of resources, but it’s not like they make those resources very easily accessible, at least in my era.”
“If you really want something, you gotta bitch for it, you know?” he concluded. This lesson is especially applicable in the arts world, where even talented filmmakers like Damien Chazelle had to hustle to get their work produced.
For budding filmmakers, producers and entertainers, Samuelson culminated with some advice based on his own career. “A talent agency is essentially a kind of a general education program for Hollywood. So if you’re not really sure what you want to do, or you sort of want something creative, and kind of want to get some experience in the industry, then yes, I think the talent agencies are the right way to go. […] But if there’s some specific path that you want, then honestly I would just cold email 17 Harvard grads who are sort of doing that, and, you know, offer to trade your sweat and effort on their behalf as an unpaid intern or whatever and, and go out and follow whatever their path is.”
Andrew Spielmann ’25 (andrewspielmann@college.harvard.edu) hates horror films.Proof Schubert Reed ’25 (proofschubertreed@college.harvard.edu) loves horror films.