The Entourage boys are back in town

By Michele Manelis

The boys are back. Adrien Grenier (centre) and Kevin Connolly (on Adrien's right) talk about their connection to their Entourage characters.
The boys are back. Adrien Grenier (centre) and Kevin Connolly (on Adrien's right) talk about their connection to their Entourage characters.
We chat to Adrien Grenier and Kevin Connolly ahead of the hotly anticipated Entourage movie

The highly anticipated big-screen version of the award-winning HBO series, Entourage (2004 – 2011) brings the boys together again to do what they do best – carousing around the hot spots in Hollywood.  We caught up with Adrien Grenier, who stars as movie star Vincent Chase, and Kevin Connolly as his loyal manager, E.


THE MOVIE WAS A BIT LIKE WATCHING THREE EPISODES BACK TO BACK.  DID IT HAVE THE SAME FEELING FILMING IT AS HOW YOU FELT BACK IN THE DAY? IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THE SHOW ENDED FOUR YEARS AGO.

AG:  Yeah, it sounds cliché but it really was like riding a bike.  It had been so many years and I missed these guys.  And I didn’t grow up with brothers and so they are my surrogate brothers so when you have family, you just show up and they take care of the rest.  And I feel that they have had my back over the years.  Even when I’m not around I hear stories and they’re saying nice things about me or standing up for me if people are talking smack, which happens.  

KC:  For me too, absolutely.  I mean it was the same crew, the same temperament, everybody was exactly what you would have expected and we just had a little bit more time and a little bit more money and a little bit more freedom creatively I think.  

Entourage ran on HBO between 2004 and 2011
Entourage ran on HBO between 2004 and 2011


WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS?

AG:  I really just enjoy that Vince is so incredibly generous and I think about that adage, ‘Give and you shall receive.’  Well, he gives it all away and it comes right back.

KC:  Well E is very much an overachiever with girls, so it would be nice to be like that.

YOUR ONSCREEN PERSONAS ARE HIP AND FASHIONABLE – HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR OWN SENSE OF STYLE?


AG:  T-shirt and jeans.  I have never been the kind of guy to want to draw a lot of attention to myself unless I am performing.  So it’s always pretty casual, down-to-earth, nothing really eccentric.  And every once in awhile, you change it up and you try something for shits and giggles.

KC:  I don’t have a middle ground, so I am either in T-shirt and jeans or a suit, (laughs) SO it’s hard for me to kind of find a middle ground there.  So I am either really comfortable or really uncomfortable.

WHAT IS THE ONE ITEM THAT YOU MUST HAVE IN YOUR CLOSET?

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AG:  A skinny tie.

KC:  That’s a good question.  Gloves. Gotta have gloves.  Curve ball there.  Yeah, I have got to have gloves. My favorite gloves are molded to my hands and they are like my favorite things in the world.  So yes, I need my gloves.


ADRIEN, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DOCUMENTARY, LONELIEST WHALE.  HAVE YOU STARTED YET?

AG:  We haven’t started yet.  We are actually in discussions with a couple of partners and that we will hopefully be able to announce pretty soon, but we plan on starting the quest at the end of the summer. So we will do a 30 plus day open water adventure on a boat looking to acoustically tag hybrid whales and study ocean noise pollution.

WHEN DID YOUR INTEREST IN WHALES AND OCEAN LIFE BEGIN?
AG:  Well I have always been interested in a lot of ocean life and environmental life as well, but it wasn’t until I met The Lonely Whale, or at least heard his story that I saw an opportunity through his story to get people to connect more with the plight of whales and marine wildlife and to listen to the first time to what we have been turning a deaf ear onto for so long.  So what are we not listening to? What are we not hearing out in nature?  It’s a symbolic story in many ways and I think this whale is a spokesperson.  And so I became interested in whales in particular, when I found a great spokesperson in 52, who is the Loneliest Whale.

YOU’RE WEARING A BUTTON ON YOUR JACKET THAT SAYS, “IS CONNECTIVITY A HUMAN RIGHT?” WHAT’S THAT ABOUT?

AG:  I went on a tour to the Facebook Headquarters in Northern California and it was a button that they had and I took one.  I put it on at the time but I think it’s more like a double entendre, like a connectivity meaning, connecting with one another or is it like internet connectivity? They sort of juxtaposed it so liked it for that reason.  But yeah, I think connecting with other humans, connecting with each other is a human right and I think being connected to the internet is a tool that we should all have access to, yes.

KC:  Adrien will tell you, I was one of the guys, with the exception of Kevin Dillon, who to this day doesn’t do it.  I fought off the social media thing until the bitter end.  There was a part of it I felt was intrusive and I just never really got into it and then Instagram and all these sorts of things happened.  And then I got bit by the bug later on and now I think it’s amazing.  While there is a certain negativity, but listen, anybody could just on their phone tell you what they think about you which can be good and bad.  (laughs) But once you get used to weeding out the negativity that exists, I have had some really, really great experiences on social media, whether it’s reconnecting with an old friend or a family member that I have never met, or just another actor or an athlete or just whoever it may be. I think it’s tremendous and I am into it now and I just wish I had gotten into it earlier. And I still call Adrien with questions, and I am still kind of figuring out how to do certain things.

AG:  I’ll teach you how to tag me.

KC:  (laughs) That’s the thing, people are like, ‘You didn’t tag me.’ And I am like, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’  I am still learning.  But I love it and I wish I would just jumped on it a little bit earlier.

ADRIEN HAS THE WHALE PROJECT, WHAT ABOUT YOU KEVIN? DO YOU HAVE ANY PROJECTS OR PASSIONS BESIDES ACTING?

KC:  Yeah. I have directed a few things and I just wrapped up an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary which we won an Emmy for, which was nice.  I do spend a lot of time doing that. The trick is really carving out two years of your life to get involved in a project, and that’s not always the easiest thing to do especially when you have commitments with Entourage or whatever it is. But I think moving forward my next move will probably be behind the camera.

ADRINE, AS VINCE, CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR THREE BUDDIES ON THE SHOW AS WELL AS ARI?
AG:  Well E, since he’s right here, has always been the most reasonable and sensible. I can trust his judgment and would never question his loyalty.  Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), the same thing, extremely loyal but maybe a little bit still green and young and so we love him for that, but you’ll see in the movie, he’s really come into his own and grown up a whole lot.  And of course my older brother, Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) loyalty is not even a question, just because of course it’s family.  And of course, it’s hard to be the younger brother that was more successful because you want to make sure that you are still honouring the hierarchy.  He used to beat me up and now of course I still want to support him.  But with Ari (Jeremy Piven), I think it’s important to have an agent that has your back and is fighting for you.  A lot of times, you sign with a big agent and it’s the sign and pass thing where they just hand you off to a lesser agent

KEVIN, CAN YOU DESCRIBE VINCE?
KC:  Well listen, I think there’s so much talk about the guys being loyal to Vince but really the most loyal of all is Vince.  I mean, he’s laid it all on the line from his career to his finances, everything. He has at some point risked or laid on the line out of love for his buddies.  So, while the guys around him are fiercely loyal, nobody is more loyal than Vince.

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