Jeremy Piven may finally be growing up.
Not only will the 44-year- old star of HBO’s Entourage finally be making the leap to leading man in next Friday’s release of The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, but the role even had him reflecting on his life.
“I don’t judge my character, I love him and in certain ways he’s very much like me,” said Piven about playing a sleazy used car salesmen. “I’m a guy who’d love to settle down, like to have a family and part of my character’s journey is ‘my God, what am I doing with my life?’”
The hilarious story of a rag-tag travelling auto sales rescue-squad, Piven may have empathized with his obnoxious character’s aimless arc but it was the chance to headline his own Hollywood hit that really caught the actor’s attention.
“(Until now), the roles that were available to me in movies were as the best friend. At a certain point you go, ‘Well, I don’t know if I want to retread over that again,’” said Piven. “I’ve apprenticed the job and I would like to take the lead now … fifty movies into it.”
Piven is in good hands to grab the reins too. Produced by none other than Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, The Goods embraces the brand of clever but childish humour that the duo has previously established in hits like Anchorman and Step Brothers.
“Adam and Will would never dissect their comedies,” said Piven. “They happen to be really, really smart and make highly insightful comedies — both low brow and high brow — kind of a unibrow comedy if you will.”
With a looming leading man career on his hands, fans may wonder whether Piven will keep with his day job as super-agent Ari Gold on Entourage. If his opinion of the show’s current success is any indication, he’ll surely stick around.
“This is my favourite season because, first of all, all the guys get to finally grow up,” said Piven, perhaps being more introspective than he realizes. “At a certain point you have to kind of grow up.”
