Agents may not get much publicity in real life, but being a fictional agent has been good to Jeremy Piven.
As superagent Ari Gold, a cheerfully ruthless hustler who talks fast and thinks faster, Piven routinely steals the HBO hit out from under the nose of nominal star Adrian Grenier, who plays Ari’s client, Vinnie Chase. The show’s ensemble cast includes Kevin Dillon as Drama, Vince’s hanger-on brother; Jerry Ferrara as tough-guy enforcer Turtle; and Kevin Connolly as Vince’s pizza-store-worker-turned-manager Eric. They draw huzzahs from critics, but Piven may be the best of the best.
As the show prepares for its new season, which will debut Sunday, there’s talk of big changes for Ari. Last season ended with his boss (Malcolm McDowell) making a comeback at the huge agency Ari has been running for years and informing him he was fired.
In the new season, rumor has it Ari starts his own agency, only to be fired by his best client, Vince, who is now starring in James Cameron’s new blockbuster, “Aquaman.” Checking in by cellphone from the streets of New York on an off day, Piven confirms the rumors, at least to some extent.
“Vince does fire Ari,” he says, “but you can’t count me – I mean, Ari – out. He’s like the phoenix. He will always rise.” The new season begins with the premiere of the big-budget “Aquaman,” starring Vincent Chase and, as herself, Mandy Moore.
Cameron also plays himself, as the director of the fictional film version of the DC comic.
The film has become such a joke in real-life Hollywood that at the superagency CAA, some staff meetings reportedly start with one of the agents saying, “So what’s the status of ‘Aquaman?”‘
“People do think this is a real film,” Piven says, laughing. “The funny thing is that we shot the ‘Aquaman’ premiere at a real theater in Westwood. There was Vinnie Chase on the red carpet, plus Mandy Moore. James Cameron was there. The hilarious thing is, we had real people and paparazzi stopping by and yelling, ‘What’s going on?”‘
“I’d yell back, ‘It’s a new movie starring Vincent Chase and Mandy Moore,’ ” he says. “The paparazzi would get all upset, thinking they were missing a real-life event. They didn’t even question that Vincent Chase isn’t even a real actor in Hollywood.
“I wanted to say, ‘It’s a movie for a series, you knuckleheads!”‘
“Entourage” probably rates as Hollywood’s favorite series, with Cameron and Moore only the tip of the iceberg where celebrity guest shots are concerned.
“This year we have people like James Woods playing himself,” Piven says. “We have Beverly D’Angelo back as a tough-as-nails agent. We already had Gary Busey butting heads with our character of Turtle. It’s amazing, because everyone wants to be on the show now, playing themselves.
“What’s really crazy is that, one night after he won the Academy Award for ‘Crash’ (2005), (writer/director) Paul Haggis was on the ‘Entourage’ set playing himself and having the best time,” the actor adds. “The guy won the Oscar for best picture, and now he wants to hang out with us.”
Originally the series was based on the real-life world of executive producer Mark Wahlberg and his entourage, though the story lines soon diverged into untrodden ground. Wahlberg and Piven are friends, which led to the latter’s being cast as Ari.
“I loved the project from the start because of the authenticity of these guys,” Piven says. “It was based on this group that hangs out with Wahlberg. I’ve seen these guys, and what I loved about them and the series is the friendship.
“They also navigate in Hollywood,” the actor says. “It’s a world that’s tough, unforgiving and fickle. I love fictionalizing that world, but not adding too much fiction. We put the real Hollywood up on the screen during this show.”
He also loves Ari, whom he calls “a type-A wrecking ball who is at the top of his game.”
“One of my favorite moments of the new season is when Turtle and Drama have a meeting with me,” Piven says, laughing, “because now even the guys in the entourage think they should have a top agent. It’s also a funny twist, because this New York street kid named Turtle somehow lucks into representing a top rapper named Saigon.
“So he’s also gone from nothing to being a Hollywood player,” he says. “I’ve seen it happen again and again.”