Sunday April 5, 2009
Show business as usual
By MUMTAJ BEGUM
The drama on Entourage continues with Vince’s struggles to resurrect his acting career. But before that, let’s speak to his manager.
AFTER four years, the dramedy about Hollywood, Entourage, is back for a fifth season, proving true there’s no business like show business.
Evidently, there’s still much to show regarding the Hollywood exploits of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his entourage.
The cast of Entourage: (from left) Jerry Ferrara (Turtle), Kevin Dillon (Johnny Drama), Adrian Grenier (Vince), Kevin Connolly (Eric) and Jeremy Piven (Ari). – Photo from HBO Offering both a fascinating and amusing insider view of the world of entertainment, the HBO show revolves around the well-known actor and his band of merry men as they navigate the treacherous terrain of Hollywood – sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
For the fifth season we’ll see how agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) tries to bring his biggest client, Vince, back from the dead, so to speak, after the actor’s dream project, Medellin, gets booed at its Cannes premiere.
A reversal of fortunes appears to be in store for Vince and his half-brother, Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon). While Vince has trouble landing acting gigs, Johnny is enjoying a good run on television.
When he is plagued by self-doubt, Vince can always rely on his pals to be there for him. One of them is Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), his manager who is determined to revive the star’s glory day.
In this interview transcript provided by HBO, Connolly lets viewers in on the latest season of Entourage, his character and even a bit about himself.
Are you like Eric in that he’s a romantic “commit-aholic”?
Yeah, I think I’m romantic to a point. This is the longest I’ve remained single. I used to have a string of like back to back. I’ve been single for a while but I’m ready, it’s just a matter of the right person coming along, we’ll see. I don’t love being single, I’m kind of over it. But you can’t force that, you can’t go rushing and say: “Oh, I don’t want to be single anymore so hey, come on over!” It doesn’t work that way! (laughs)
So what are you looking for?
I don’t know, I don’t even have a specific type; I’ve looked at the girls that I’ve dated, they’re all so different.
How was it working with Scarlett Johansson? You played her boyfriend (in the new movie He’s Just Not That into You).
On the first day I had to be in bed with Scarlett, and as good as that looks on paper, it’s not as great as it is like in theory; I was a nervous wreck, and I was like: “Let’s get this scene over with.”
But you’re used to a lot of pretty hot ladies, aren’t you?
She’s hotter than your average hot person. (laughs)
How realistic is the Entourage story as opposed to the industry?
Of course, it’s a TV show, so at times it’s going to be a little magnified. But I think we’re the closest to anyone else has been. Hollywood shows are sort of tricky and people hadn’t been very successful, but this show for some reason has worked well.
Mark Wahlberg (one of the show’s producers) is talking about maybe an Entourage movie. Any thoughts on that?
That would be fantastic. The way that would work would be after the show ends. After the show ends, you go into the initial mourning period, you’re missing it, so then a movie would be great.
How long do you think Entourage can go for?
Honestly, I think I can safely speak for all the actors on the show: I think as long as they would have us, we’ll be there. But then again, there does come a point when you ask what does that mean? Are we going for 15 years? Of course not. We’re definitely doing Season 6. In a perfect world, eight seasons will be great. But who knows, there is still a business side to it and it’s not free. It’s a lot of money to do a show. You’ll never know what’s going on behind the numbers. It’s a corporation, it’s HBO. Whatever makes sense for them.
Are you and anybody going to have a real proper fight?
It’s funny, like a good old-fashioned fist fight between Eric and Vince would be fun. Or Eric and Ari would be an even better one. That you might see!
Do you ever want to punch Ari (Jeremy Piven)?
No, sometimes you get scenes for the next day and you think: “Okay, here we go, this is gonna be fun.” But really, at the end of the day there are fun scenes to do and when you do scenes like that the day flies by.
Jeremy is a world-class actor; he’s won back-to-back Emmys – that’s impossible! Three-in-a-row Golden Globe (nominations), he’s round the table with the show, and he’s done it all. What we need is for the show to win, one of these days. We’ve always been nominated; we deserve to win one thing, something.
Do you get ragged on by the rest of the cast members, like Eric gets ragged on all the time?
They’s a big bunch of ball busters but that’s across the board. People dish it out but they take it. I think it’s a pretty equal playing field on who takes the abuse.
Is there any other event episode you want to do?
That’s a big question. We talked about Mardi Gras, that was one that we have been kicking around for years, like Vince is the grand marshall. So that’s one. I don’t know if that’s going to happen this year but we talked about how great it would be. It’s one of those things, it’s so much fun and you show up for work the next day and you’re like: “... Who didn’t make it out of the hotel room this morning?”
Shooting on location – is it a problem, are there distractions?
The Cannes thing was hard because of the time change. We were there for such a short period of time you didn’t have time to go through the jetlag so we were up at weird hours; that was physically demanding and difficult, but so exhilarating at the same time. Plus, at the show, the French didn’t really know the show, so they were like: “Who are these people standing at the carpet? That’s not George Clooney. Get Brad Pitt back here.”
How has your life changed? Have you bought a fast car, do you drive an Aston Martin?
No, I’m not a fast car kind of guy. It’s changed my life and also the timing and the success of the show is great for me as it has sort of set me up as an adult, I have an adult house, I have a foundation. I guess my point is that I’m a lot happier that the show popped for me in my 30s as opposed to in my early 20s ’cos that could have been a disaster if we were at the height of the show when I was 21 or 22. At least now I’m 35 so now I’m more settled. If I was 22 I would probably have an Aston Martin but now I’m just trying to set myself up for the rest of my life.
Season 5 of ‘Entourage’ premieres on HBO (Astro Channel 411) on Wednesday, April 15, at 10.30pm. New episodes are on every Wednesday at 10.30pm with encores on Sundays at 2.30pm.
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