Entourage Star Jeremy Piven Thinks His New Movie Has ‘The Goods’

Jeremy Piven is arguably one of the hardest working actors in the industry.  One look at his IMDB profile will attest to that. 

“One of the things that I have to work on the most, is not working, I haven’t taken a break in well over 20 years,” the Entourage star notes. But Piven admits that making his latest film, ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard’, was so much fun, he almost forgot it was work.

Take the scene where Piven’s character, smooth-talking car salesman Don Ready, spends some quality time at a strip club with friends enduring a comically rough lap dance.   

“She was wrenching my neck repeatedly and she had these really strong legs,” he laughs, recalling how difficult it was to recite his lines with his head sandwiched between two muscular thighs.  “I went home and I was an inch away from a neck brace, it was pretty brutal.  At the same time I’m going to work and there’s a woman wrapping her legs around me, and I’m in a strip club…I’m not out in the hot sun repaving a road, I have nothing to complain about.”

In ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard’, Don Ready leads a crew of cunning and colourful car salesmen to the town of Temecula, where they’ve been hired to help rescue a desperate dealership from looming bankruptcy.   Much like Piven’s famous Entourage character, Ari Gold, Ready is driven and somewhat manic in his approach to his given profession. 

But his obsession with making sales takes a long overdue backseat to his longing for something more stable and meaningful in his life.

“I would say that Don Ready goes through changes that Ari Gold never would,” he responds when asked if the two characters share similarities.   “(Ari) wouldn’t be stopped in his tracks by a woman, the way Don was.  Each one of them, is a man child in a way.  But Ari is dealing with completely different problems.  Don Ready is just this kind of road dog with a severe case of the Peter Pan syndrome.

“The movie is really a fun romp and at the same time it’s a weird kind of coming-of-age for Don Ready.”

It could also mark a turning point in Piven’s career. 

“I know realistically this a fork in the road for me if this movie does as well as I believe that it could do, because I think it’s a genuinely entertaining movie.  I’m not delusional at this point in terms of what I’m putting out there. I knew from the start when I first read it how funny this movie was.”

Despite the slew of raunchy jokes and imbecilic improvisations, the film has some serious undertones, touching on issues of racism, capitalism, and the recent recession.  In many ways, the dealership is a microcosm of America and the salespeople are caricatures of the nation’s worst traits.  

“I think there was a great deal of arrogance and a lot of delusional people who were involved in…what’s been happening in the United States,” Piven, a native of Chicago, said of the economic downturn.

“In a way, this movie is a sign of the times.”

And when times are tough, Piven believes laughter can help us endure.

“Car sales in the States are down 40%, there have been car salesmen who have been at these screenings and they have been so thankful, they have a great time and they can laugh at their situation and I think that’s one of the great things that I’ve learned from getting older, is that being reactive and letting it make you crazy is not going to ultimately help anything.  I think laughing at any type of situation is kind of a beautiful thing and if you can keep your head when all the madness swirls around you, you’re going to be okay.”

One thing Piven doesn’t find funny, are allegations that he faked illness to get out of the Broadway production of ‘Speed-the-Plow.’  He maintains he was deathly ill with mercury poisoning — the result of years of heavy fish consumption.

“I’ve never missed a rehearsal or day of work in my life.  When three doctors tell you in the hospital that they are not going to allow you to go back on that stage, you have a resting heart rate of 47 with arrhythmia and they believe that you could absolutely have a heart attack and die on that stage, and I’m quoting them, and this is the truth, I think it’s important to listen to them.”

“I think that this victimless crime of me having to leave a show after four months instead of six months will die down, I believe, I hope.  I think Sushi-gate will fade away.”

What likely won’t fade away, is Piven’s ambition to make as big a mark on the big screen as he has on television.  And much like Don Ready, he’s willing to put in the hours to sell his product.

“I have to go on the road just like Don Ready and sell the metal,” he notes with a smile.  

“I’m here telling you guys how much I love the film and the good news for me is that I do love it, this is not work.”

michaelt@citytv.com

‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, opens on Friday, August 14th.

All photos compliments of Paramount Pictures