Thursday, September 2, 2010

Jeremy Piven must feel like the three-time bridesmaid who has finally made it down the aisle as a bride.

After all, the actor has carved out a sturdy career playing supporting roles in films such as ‘Grosse Pointe Blanc’, ‘Old School’ and ‘RocknRolla’, and now, at the age of 44, he has finally landed a lead film role, as smooth-talking car salesman Don Ready in the comedy ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard’.

“It was like sticking around the party for a little bit longer,” Jeremy says about playing the lead. “It was a great thing for me, and I feel like I’ve been practising that for at least 20 years and so that’s maybe why I have something to offer.

Whether I’m carrying the movie or not, it doesn’t matter, but to carve out that lead role is a great gift and I’d love to continue that.”

The casting choice could be down, in part, to Jeremy having made a name for himself playing ruthless Hollywood agent Ari Gold in US television series ‘Entourage’.

The show, described as ‘Sex And The City for men’, follows an A-list actor, his manager, agent (Piven) and entourage of friends.

On the eve of its seventh season, the show has attracted an enormous following and Jeremy has emerged as somewhat of a cult figure.

“Fans see me, guys in particular, and respond to me as if I’m that character. They’ll be abrasive - they’ll bark and smack me on the back, it’s just very strange. It’s a tribute to that character that people bring it to life like that,” he says.

Some of Ari can even be seen in his new character Don Ready, who lives for work and will do anything and say anything to sell a car.

He leads a crack team of sales specialists who spend their lives travelling to whichever car showroom needs to rejuvenate its sales.

But this isn’t a film about sales techniques, rather about the friendship between Don’s motley crew and his own personal journey as he begins to question his commitment-shy nomadic ways.

It is also packed with shocking jokes and one-liners. A Korean salesmen gets beaten up by his colleagues in an apparent ‘hate crime’ and several scenes are set in the salacious surroundings of a strip club.

But Jeremy stands by the humour, despite complaints from some quarters about its lack of taste.

“I really thought it was all very funny, I was not offended,” he says.

“Growing up we had this great saying in my family which was, ‘You can say whatever you want as long as it’s funny’ and I think the humour here is in the spirit of the movie.

“We set up a contract with the audience the minute the film starts and (when) one character crosses that line as a car salesman and just punches a customer in the face and loses his mind, you know you’re in for a ride.”

Jeremy’s easy-going manner and gift for comic timing may be one of the reasons he has landed friends such as American football player Tony Romo, as well as John Cusack and Dustin Hoffman.

But on the whole, Jeremy remains guarded about his private life, preferring to offer up a joke or an anecdote than to speak frankly about his personal affairs.

Is this a deliberate move?

“Yes, I think it is,” Jeremy admits.

“If you parade your private life in public I think it robs you of your anonymity and I don’t know how healthy that is. I’m just trying to figure out a way to be a decent person and a working actor.”

That said, he is frank enough to admit that he is “single right now”.

“I’m absolutely looking for someone, why not?” he adds, offering hope to the many who swoon at his swarthy good looks.

The public also got an insight into Jeremy’s life earlier this year when he was criticised for dropping out of a Broadway run of David Mamet’s ‘Speed The Plow’.

The playwright made jokes about Jeremy dropping out, and some of the remaining cast also publicly expressed their disappointment about him leaving, prompting Jeremy to come clean about the reasons he dropped out.

It turns out he was suffering from mercury poisoning after eating excessive amounts of sushi over a long period of time, having given up meat and poultry.

Jeremy looks surprised when I ask him about the episode, apparently because he didn’t think the press outside the US had picked up on it, but he remains candid.

“I hadn’t eaten any red meat or chicken for 20 years, all I ate was fish twice a day. We have a problem with mercury in fish and it’s only now coming to the fore,” he says. He’s now eating fish again - for the first time in fifteen months - having celebrated with a meal out in Nobu.

But what’s next on Jeremy’s career plate? He says, a children’s animation called ‘Marmaduke’, in which he voices a villain, and also work on and the seventh season of ‘Entourage’.

He even has some ideas about what he’d like to see happen to his character.

“I’d like to see Ari brought to his knees, I really would.

“That’s one of the great things about this series is you can spend all the seasons deepening a character and building him up and seeing what happens if he gets torn down, I think that would be fascinating,” he says. And maybe, just hopefully, there’ll be another lead role for Jeremy waiting around the corner.