Monday June 15, 2009
Coming of age
By S. INDRAMALAR
Actor Jerry Ferrara, who plays Turtle in the hit series Entourage, takes time out to talk about his fast-emerging career.
WHAT’S not to like about Turtle – not the animal but the gopher/driver/tag-along on Vincent Chase’s (Adrian Grenier) entourage on the popular HBO series Entourage? He’s funny, he’s sexist (ok, that’s not nice), he’s a pot-head (ok, that’s questionable to some, but it sure makes him funny), he’s pretty indolent (not a good trait, this) and he’s desperate to get it on with the many hot babes in Hollywood (ok, that’s not nice, either).
So maybe there isn’t a lot to like about Turtle (played by Jerry Ferrara) ... at first glance. But after watching just a few episodes of Entourage, it’s clear that beneath the oversized basketball jerseys and caps is a loyal friend who would move mountains to protect the people he cares about (albeit after leeching on them). And, he is seriously funny.
Breakout role: Jerry Ferrara stars as Turtle in Entourage. Playing Turtle to perfection is 29-year-old Brooklyn native Ferrara who sees very little of himself in his character.
Unlike the happy-to-be-jobless Turtle, Ferrara says he’s had to pay his dues – working as a waiter and even on a construction job – before landing his breakout role in the plum series that has made it to six seasons, and counting.
But then he says: “Unless you are in a superhero movie or a comic adaptation in which case you try and assume the character, all actors tend to put a little of themselves in roles. So, yeah, there are bits of me in Turtle. I am very loyal to my friends and maybe I share some of that laziness (laughs), too, but other than that I am quite different.
“I am not a party animal like Turtle. I’m more responsible and I take my work very seriously,” says Ferrara in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.
“People who see me on Entourage may think that I was an overnight success story but it has not been easy (getting to where I am). I came to LA (from New York) when I was 18 and although I got small acting parts almost immediately I always had to do something else to support myself. “I’ve done the whole struggling actor bit where I was a waiter at the Boston Market for four years and I have even worked in construction even though I knew nothing about construction and was probably a danger to everyone,” adds the sports fanatic devoted to the New York Yankees and the Knicks.
Entourage is a multiple Emmy-nominated series – a dramedy that chronicles the rise of Vincent Chase, a young A-list movie star, and his childhood friends from Queens in New York City, as they find their way in Hollywood.
Created by Doug Ellin and co-produced by Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, the show’s premise is loosely based on Wahlberg’s experiences as an up-and-coming movie star. However, Ferrara says, the show has evolved since its first few seasons and has now taken on a life of its own.
The series stars Adrian Grenier as Vince, Kevin Connolly as Vince’s manager, Eric (the voice of sanity who tries to help Vince make the right choices), Kevin Dillon as Vince’s half-brother Johnny Drama, who is a struggling actor living in the shadow of his brother and Ferrara as Turtle. Jeremy Piven plays Ari Gold, Vince’s agent.
The tide has turned not only for Ferrara but also his character Turtle. After four seasons of being serially unlucky with the ladies, Turtle’s love life picks up in Season Five (and continues to develop in Season Six) and fans get to see a different side – a softer, more mature side – of the character. (A little teaser: Turtle befriends Jamie Lynn-Sigler, the Sopranos star on a first-class flight home from Hawaii in the last episode and though his friends are sceptical, Turtle may actually get a happy ending this season.)
“I can’t tell you a lot ... I know it’s not like the Sopranos where you don’t want to know who dies or who gets shot but they’ll (the producers) be very, very, mad at me if I tell you what’s going to happen.
“What I can say is that Turtle really grows up a lot in Season Five and Six and he does things that he has never done before. There will be change and all the changes build up to something,” teases Ferrara.
Although he now has a strong following – fans coming up to him on the streets in true Entourage fashion and he can gain access into any restaurant or club he wishes, Ferrara reckons one of the most significant changes is how the show has paved the way for bigger roles for the actor.
Life-changing
“The show has definitely opened a lot of doors for me. It’s the best thing that’s happened to me. The show is very well liked in the business and it has changed my life, definitely. Some opportunities have come by but I have to make sure that my responsibility to shooting Entourage is my priority. We shoot for a pretty long time in a year and so scheduling can sometimes be a problem.”
Having said that, he did let slip that he has some new projects in the works – he’s just too superstitious to talk about them too much.
“I wish I wasn’t that way but I am very superstitious. I mean I’ve carried a lucky quarter with me, wherever I go, for years. That’s how superstitious I am. I have something coming up but I am sorry I can’t talk about it,” he apologises.
Ferrara’s past movies include Where God Left His Shoes (2007) opposite John Leguizamo and Gardener Of Eden (2007) with Lukas Haas. He was a lead actor in Brooklyn Rules (2007) with Freddie Prinze Jr, Alec Baldwin and Mena Suvari. Despite his success on Entourage, Ferrara says he doesn’t have an entourage of his own.
“Maybe if I was back in New York. Most of my friends are still in New York ... these are guys I have known since I was four. Maybe if I was in New York they’d be my entourage, you know, a group of close friends who hang out. But I’m mostly in LA so I hang out with my girlfriend a lot,” he says.
Although he doesn’t reveal who that special girl is, it is rumoured to be Lynn-Sigler.
The relationship between the Entourage members, says Ferrara, is also tight and the guys get together and stay in touch even when shooting for the series is done.
“Everything you see on the series, all the fun the guys have on the show ... I can honestly say we have way more fun off the set, once the cameras stop rolling.
“We are really good pals ... no, like family and I know we will be life-long friends and I love them,” confesses Ferrara who attended cast member Dillon’s wedding to model/actress Jane Stuart in 2006.
It is the camaraderie between the guys on and off the show that has made the show so popular.
“I mean, not everyone has a famous movie star friend like Vince Chase obviously but there will be a guy who is like him or like Johnny Drama or E. We are ordinary guys in extraordinary situations and people can relate and say, hey, maybe that could be me.
“I think it’s great that people can have that moment.”
The fifth season of Entourage is currently on HBO (Astro Ch 411). New episodes are on Wednesday at 10.30pm with encores on Sunday at 2.30pm. The final episode of the season will air on July 1.
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