Jeremy Piven is Mr. Selfridge

Actor Jeremy Piven has become best known as the fast talking agent to the stars, Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage.  His character also earned him three Emmys over the course of the show’s seven year run. He’s also had a long acclaimed film career with memorable roles in PCU, Old School, Runaway Jury and I Melt With You.  Recently, Jeremy stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about his new PBS series, Mr. Selfridge, which follows the story of Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridge and Co.  Excerpts of the interview appear below.

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Jeremy Piven Talking About Harry Gordon Selfridge

Ron Bennington:  Well, he’s [Selfridge] a fascinating man.  Forget the character.  The guy’s life – there’s certain guys that lived lives where they almost rose above their time or pulled their times ahead.  And I think guys are going to love this thing because we love those kind of stories.  We love the kind of stories of people who define their times.  And he pulled that off.  

Jeremy Piven:  Absolutely.  He was a real American pioneer in every sense of the word.  You have to understand that in 1909 when he went over to London, there weren’t really any department stores.  I mean they were tiny and they didn’t have any customer service.  And he had this credo “The customer is always right”.  And here he was, building a huge 8 story building that was basically looked from the outside like the White House.  And the money fell through and he plunged ahead anyway.  And instead of backing out, he doubled his advertising without the money.  And he made it happen because he willed it to happen.  And this is a true story and here we are a hundred years later and it was voted the best department store in the world to this day.  So, it’s a fascinating story and by the way, that’s just the backdrop.  The rest is really all about the characters in the world that he inhabits.  And the fact that he loved his wife and had an incredible family, but he loved to gamble and he loved to be out at night and do his thing.

Ron Bennington:  Well, it’s that alpha personality, right?  That the thing is that if you want that great man, he’s also going to have great appetites, so there’s a dark side to that.  And there’s a part of it where he even says…I don’t want to give shit away, but he’s like – You know, it’s not like I want to be…you know what I mean?  I don’t want this darkness, it just happens.  Because I think if you bring so much up to anything, there’s going to be down.  

Jeremy Piven:  Absolutely.  We live in the light and we also have our shadows.

Ron Bennington:  Right.  You can’t escape.  You get both.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yes.  And with him, it was that duality that drew me to this character because without that, you don’t have compelling characters to watch on screen.

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Jeremy Piven Talks About Letting Go of Ari Gold

Ron Bennington:  Then you have mythology instead of a human story.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yeah.  It’s interesting because in the UK where…listen, I didn’t know how this thing would be received.  I mean they are, no pun intended, the kings of period dramas, right?  “Downton Abbey” and everything in between.  “Pride and Prejudice” which was written by our writer Andrew Davies.  They’ve been doing it forever.  And so I thought – I’m going to go over there.  I’m the American lead in this production and how are we going to be received?  And here’s what’s ironic – is that it was received so well, the reviews were so glowing.  We had 8.5 million people watching the first season which is unheard of – for the United States, much less the UK which is much smaller.  And so, I wasn’t expecting that.  And I think what’s starting to happen here – I read a couple of reviews and what’s so interesting to me is, it’s hard for people to let go of Ari Gold – which is funny because…listen, I get that I was in people’s living rooms for 8 years.  As a person, I’m so different from Ari Gold.  So, it was such a fun character to put on and to be this kind of reactive rageaholic that is this fast talking abrasive Hollywood agent.  For whatever reason, it’s much harder for the few little reviews that I’ve read here that have come out so far, for them to separate the two.  In the UK, there wasn’t even a mention of it, even though “Entourage” definitely made it’s way over there.  So, it’s going to be interesting.  There’s been a real difference between the people who we make it for have really gravitated towards it and the ones that have seen so far, are really digging it too.

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Jeremy Piven Talks About Sacrifice and Balancing Business and Personal Life

Ron Bennington:  The thing too, I think as a guy watches this, you’ll be thinking like what is a life?  Because if you want this kind of success, you sacrifice other places.  There’s no doubt about that.  And it’s very strange at what point you pick of saying – what kind of life am I going to have?  I guess that happens in acting and there’s no possible way that you can have a career as long and stayed as busy as you have without giving up stuff.  

Jeremy Piven:  Oh yeah.  I mean you’ve…truer words have never been spoken.  It’s true what you just said.  Yeah, it definitely…I mean Harry had a family and he did work that – the duality of being kind of obsessed with work and yet, being a family man and a father.  But you know…I don’t want to tell you too much about his life, but it kind of plays out like a Greek tragedy.  The way he starts and the way he ends, you just won’t believe it’s actually going to happen.  But I think he did pay the price for being so driven.  I’ve spent my entire life acting.  I’ve done more movies than years I’ve been alive and certainly more TV shows.  And now, finally I’m getting to the point where I’m allowing myself to take take a break and find balance.  Finally, in my life.  And it’s much needed.  You just hope that it…that at some point, you’ll shake yourself out of it.  Because ambition can get the best of you.

Ron Bennington:  It’s really strange how that happens, no matter what happens, you’re out of balance, I think, in life.  Either you’re not giving it enough to one area or you’re ignoring, or as soon as you feel like you’ve got it good and you’ll start spinning the other plates, you find out you’ve got to run back again.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yeah, it’s a cliche, but it is about figuring out that balance.  And what’s the best way to stay present.

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Jeremy Piven Talks About Moving On

Ron Bennington:  And only for moments.  You only get moments.  You don’t get it long term.  You brought up the Ari Gold in this country – that they won’t drop the character and they won’t drop “Entourage” which is a great thing, but at the same time – did that surprise you?  When you just brought up that you’ve done 60 movies or whatever, I mean you’ve done so much stuff.  

Jeremy Piven:  You can’t be surprised anymore.  I think there’s a compliment somewhere in there – that if you play a character well possibly or authentically or something like that – that it has an impact.  I know the way I played this character.  I know the response that I got in their backyard.  And they just embraced it.  And so, I don’t know.  I figure like if the Brits embraced it, both critically and if they swarm to the show and it’s a love show over there – it must mean that we’re on to something.  I think because that to me has as much validity as when we did a show about Hollywood.  That Hollywood itself said – yeah, you’re kind of getting it right.  So to me, if you can’t drop the Ari Gold of it, then God bless you.  And I hope you do because this was such a fun journey and I had so much fun.  It was such a great ride. And at some point, you’d be missing out if you keep tying yourself to a preconceived notion of me as a performer or this character.  This guy, I don’t know if you saw the pilot.

Ron Bennington:  I saw all 10 episodes.  

Jeremy Piven:  Oh okay.

Ron Bennington:  I sat down – at first on paper, I kind of might have felt like the critics that I don’t know if I want to see a thing about a department store.  Like chips, I just went through all the episodes like it was chips.  I loved it.  

Jeremy Piven:  It’s addicting, isn’t it?

Ron Bennington:  Yeah.  It really is.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yeah.  And it gets better and better, right?

Ron Bennington:  Yes.  It’s very very tense.  And the weird thing is, I think men and women get something different themselves out of the show.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yes.  Without a doubt.  The reason I asked if you had seen it – is the guy in public, you’ve never seen someone smile so much.  He’s always taking the high road.  And that’s the antithesis of Ari Gold.  Ari Gold ruled with an iron fist and through intimidation.  This guy is a beam of sunshine at all times, unless he’s behind closed doors in which he has his doubts and fears and insecurities and all that.  You have that great duality.  But it’s a much different guy than Ari Gold.

Ron Bennington:  Sure.  It’s a different guy.  It’s a different time.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yes.  A different language.  A different energy.  A different way of conducting himself.

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Jeremy Piven Talks About Getting Picked Up for a Second Season

Ron Bennington:  So they’ve already picked it up for a second season over there.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yes.

Ron Bennington:  I know that they don’t normally go as long as we do.

Jeremy Piven:  They never do.

Ron Bennington:  I mean you won’t do 8 years there, right?  

Jeremy Piven:  No, they’re not about getting to that magical 100 episodes so they can go into syndication.  It’s just not on their radar.  And I think that’s one of the many variables to why their level of play is so high because it’s all about quality with them.  And you look at any Ricky Gervais show, “Extras” or “The Office” or whatever.  And those shows don’t go more than let’s say 3 seasons because they go until…if the creator feels like quality is going to fall off – let’s stop.  They just stop.  They don’t try to…let’s get Charlie Sheen and do 2 episodes a week and we’ll do 116 episodes in 9 minutes and we’ll go directly into syndication.  That doesn’t exist in their culture.  So this is incredibly ambitious and the way that Andrew Davies and team was like – no, I see 4 seasons here.  And that is like unheard of there – to say that.  And they marked it out and the guy’s life is just expansive and tragic and beautiful and all those things.

Ron Bennington:  So, they’ve kind of figured out here’s the first act – each season will be a different part of his life.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yeah.

Ron Bennington:  That’s fascinating that they would even do that.  

Jeremy Piven:  Yeah, yeah.  They just see it all.  Maybe that’s an homage to Harry because as he did.  He went over there and he just wouldn’t be stopped.  And I think they’re doing the same thing.

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Ron Bennington:  The show starts this Sunday, March 31st.  It’s “Mr. Selfridge” on PBS, 9 o’clock Eastern.  For more, go to PBS.org.  Jeremy, great to see you in here, man.  

Jeremy Piven:  Thank you, man.  Thank you for watching all 10 episodes, man.

Ron Bennington:  Yeah.  I went through it really quick.  It’s really a lot of fun.   Okay.  See you next time coming through, bud.

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Mr. Selfridge airs Sundays on PBS.  Get more information on the official website, and follow the show on Twitter @MrSelfridge .  You can also follow Jeremy Piven on twitter @JeremyPiven.

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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Not yet a subscriber?  Click here for a free trial subscription.

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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews atRonBenningtonInterviews.com.