Jeremy Piven has played his role as Ari Gold in Entourage so well that a lot of people mistake him for a pompous, abusive jerk. But that is not who the soon-to-be 50 year-old actor is. He is actually a far cry from his best-known character, however surreal it may sound to fans of the show.
Recently Piven and a few of his buddies were very special guests of the HFPA at the Golden Globes. That’s because the long-awaited Entourage: Enjoy the Ride, movie crew was filming a crucial scene of the upcoming film set – appropriately enough for the Hollywood-meta series – at the Globes. Jeremy Piven looked appropriately cocky as he led fellow cast members Kevin Connolly, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara down the red carpet in his fancy tuxedo, waving his hand in a slightly arrogant manner at the loud, screaming fans.
This is Jeremy Piven in full Ari mode complete with the I don’t give a s… attitude on his face, a far cry from the amiable and courteous actor we meet a few months later. “How much can I reveal?” Jeremy Piven asked himself then, opting to start with the Golden Globes scene. “I think you guys will be very pleased how we positioned that into the movie because you are not going to see it coming. We now have a new ending and it is going to elevate
our movie.” Jeremy has been at his share of award shows. He has won 3 consecutive Emmys for his role as Ari Gold from 2006-2008. And he has been nominated for a Golden Globe a total of 6 times for his work on Entourage winning once, in 2008. Along with the happy memories there is at least one quite embarrassing moment: When Jeremy was nominated in 2007 and he stood up thinking he was the winner. Only he was not. “It’s an honest mistake when you hear your name called, you stand up and then they say Jeremy and then you stand up and they say Irons and you realize you are standing on national television and you somehow have to sit down, and I see it as something slightly humiliating, but that’s okay, this is life. It’s a cliché, but it’s really true: what an honor just to be nominated and to be there and what a gift and to be there with my fellow cast members and stuff. So that was an incredible night.”
He won the year after. But out of the total of 6 nominations, this was the time when there was no show. The writer’s strike prevented that from happening and Jeremy had to hear about his win on the radio.
“I love the event,” he says about the award show. “I love that it’s a celebration and it’s not pretentious and everyone is having a good time and they are eating, they are drinking, they are giving toasts, so I would have liked, in the best of all possible worlds to win it at the actual event, but that’s the way it goes, this is life and life does this to us so we can learn certain things. And so I’m humbled and honored.”
“There are agents that are very much like (Ari), to lesser and stronger degrees. Some are completely humane and decent, present people, and some are quick to be aggressive, reactive, crazy sharks. So they exist. Oh yes, they are absolutely out there. Now as you can tell from sitting across the booth from me, I am a far cry from Ari Gold, and it must be very surreal for you to experience that.”
TJ