No one hurls an insult or flips his shit more convincingly than Jeremy Piven. That is, Jeremy Piven when he’s playing super-agent Ari Gold; in real life, Piven is as polite and likable as could be hoped for. But when he’s in the Ari zone, as he of course is in the new ENTOURAGE movie, he’s simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. And though it has been almost four years since the show ended, Piven doesn’t miss a beat; it’s like he never stopped chucking his cell phone.
But to hear him tell it, returning to the world of ENTOURAGE wasn’t quite so effortless; he reveals it didn’t come as naturally as one might expect. In the below interview, Piven and I discuss stepping back into Ari’s expensive shoes, as well as his most memorable Ari dialogue and whether or not he sees playing Ari again in the future.