Talking to Jeremy Piven is an experience. What was supposed to be a 10-minute chat to get some quotes for a June issue Spotlight on the upcoming Entourage movie turned into something of a 20-minute monologue about the craft of acting and the formal process behind Piven’s most iconic character, hectoring Hollywood honcho Ari Gold. Luckily, space on VF.com is unlimited, so we are able to print more of the delightfully logorrheic interview here.
On moving on from Entourage only to return to it a few years later
“I’ve been around a while, and you’re lucky to get your pilot picked up, much less have a run like that. So we were just incredibly lucky. Even though it was over, it didn’t necessarily feel over? I was so immersed in something else, [filming the British series Mr. Selfridge], but the idea of going back to it seemed really fun. Because Ari Gold is the antithesis of Harry Selfridge. I really do think that everything that one does informs the next thing that you do. And going over there and working in a different tone and playing with the best actors in the world—the talent pool is so deep in the U.K. it’s staggering. I think, I hope, my game has been raised. And so that’s kind of what we’re after here, is to do an explored and heightened version of the Entourage show that people know.
“To be honest, I think if I wasn’t immersed in Mr. Selfridge, and let’s say I hadn’t been working for whatever reason, it would have given me pause, for sure, to go revisit that character. Because you’re in people’s living rooms for eight seasons, and it’s your job as an actor to continue to grow and stretch, so it felt like time to move on. But now it just felt like, yeah, it would be really fun to kick it around again and play this incredibly reactive, overly emotional character.”
On the show’s success
“I’ve always been an underdog, and I don’t know any other way to think. You know, I was 40 movies into it before we even started Entourage. As an actor you are used to rejection, you develop a thick skin, so to have this kind of success . . . was not expected in any way, shape, or form.”
On being angry Ari again
“The space that Ari occupies is that incredibly low frequency that one can fall under if you’re not present. So if you’re not present, you’re incredibly reactive and you’re in your head. That’s where he lives. It’s an incredibly fun character to play and, I’m guessing from the reaction, a fun character to watch. But as a person, it’s not necessarily healthy to live there, if that makes any sense. I’m lucky enough to come from this incredibly supportive theatre family where it’s sacrilegious to turn down a good role, to be honest with you. This character is played with Commedia dell’Arte stakes, which is . . . you’re completely immersed in one of four states—happiness, sadness, anger, or fear—at all times, and that’s part of the training that I come from. . . . Everything means the world to him. And so it was just so fun and cathartic to play that. And at the same time . . . listen, your body thinks you’re throwing a temper tantrum for 12, 14 hours a day. So it can be a little taxing. It’s been a very welcome break.”
On getting the band back together
“When you do a movie, you’re trying to condense whatever process that you have into whatever they give you, let’s say they give you a couple weeks to prepare if you’re lucky. But with this, we had eight seasons to prepare. . . . We had the momentum going in, so we were really lucky in that sense. . . . It is just like I remember it. I think it would probably be very similar to a band getting back together. I remember Stewart Copeland, who’s a friend of mine—I’m honored to call him a friend, because I’m a viciously mediocre drummer and he’s one of the greatest drummers of all time—he told me that when the Police got back together initially to play at a friend’s wedding, it was like no time had gone by. They fell right into place, musically. The exact spot where they went up into a tempo that was too fast and Sting had to bring them down, everything just kind of re-emerged. You fall back into all those old habits.”
On the two sides of Entourage
“What’s fascinating is you did have two very distinct, different lifestyles. One with the boys, and on a Tuesday they’re partying around a pool as if they’re in Ibiza in August, on a random Tuesday. Bikini models and everything. And I’m basically rolling calls with Lloyd, losing my mind, on a set. So our experiences were very, very different. And yet you think of Entourage in one way, kind of like this male fantasy. And my character represented in a way the responsibility that goes along with all that. So I had to kind of ground it, he was the kind of adult. But the reality is, he threw temper tantrums like a child.”
On Ari’s secret humanity
“I felt like no matter what, the character had a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Because his methods were completely unsound, and yet, he’s doing it all for his family. He can’t complete a sentence without looking at a woman passing by him, and yet he’s monogamous to Mrs. Ari, or as Perrey Reeves revealed in the last season, Melissa, Melissa Gold. The reality is, at times Ari is all bark and no bite. Perrey and I established very early on, I said to her, ‘It’s really important that you wear the pants in this relationship.’ It was just such a fun thing to play off of, because she holds the power, and that’s really fun to play because Ari does have a lot of power in the workplace, and he rules with an iron fist. But Mrs. Ari really calls the shots, ultimately. I love that duality. You think that he’s a pig, but he’s monogamous. And all these things he’s doing are to put food on the table for his family.”
On the movie’s new, and maybe improved, Ari
“I think what you’re seeing, which is really fun, is a more evolved Ari Gold. He’s really trying. And at the same time, he has more responsibilities. So in a weird way, he’s evolved, but he’s become more like himself. Because he’s completely being tested, because running a studio, the stakes are much higher than running an agency. So in many ways Doug created a really nice transition, organically, in terms of the Ari arc, going from a TV show to a film, because he does accept the offer to be God in that arena. But along with that comes all the responsibilities. So yes, you are gonna see a guy who is trying desperately to hold it together. But I think that’s what people want to see, and it’s really fun. I do believe that this will be satisfying to people [who] have a reference for the show, and even those that don’t.”
