Alice Eve and Adrian Grenier in ENTOURAGE - Season 8 | ©2011 HBO/Claudette Barius

For eight seasons, Adrian Grenier has starred as Vince Chase on HBO’s half-hour ENTOURAGE, about the adventures in Hollywood of not only young actor Chase, but the hometown posse that’s followed him to Tinseltown. ENTOURAGE has its series finale next Sunday, September 11 at 10 PM, but it’s hardly the end of the road for Grenier on either side of the camera.

The New Mexico-born Grenier is best known for his performance work, but he’s also produced the documentary TV series ALTER ECO and produced and directed last year’s acclaimed documentary film TEENAGE PAPARAZZO.

ASSIGNMENT X: You’re very concerned with ecology and certain other political issues. Have you ever suggested ENTOURAGE creator/producer Doug Ellin that anything in the show be used even very subtly to promote any causes?

ADRIAN GRENIER: Yeah. I mean, it was always very difficult for me to jump into a Hummer [laughs] every time we did a scene in the car for the first four some odd years, because it was important to me that we got off gas guzzlers and [did] more for the environment. But at the end of the day, it’s a show and it’s a fantasy – you’ve got to do what’s creatively sound for the story and not let your ultimate politics get involved, necessarily.

AX: Are you still politically involved?

GRENIER: I’m involved as much as I need to be, of course. I’m a citizen and I exercise my rights and I speak out and communicate. That’s important. And in fact, SHFT.com – that’s s-h-f-t, no I, shft.com just won two Remmies for being the best green website, so not only political, but also socially trying to shift ideas and nudge culture into a more sustainable future.

AX: You’re an actor playing an actor. How has that felt over the course of ENTOURAGE?

GRENIER: If I was a different actor, if I was a more ambitious and insecure actor, I might feel emasculated by my character, given that he is far more successful than I am. But that’s not the case. I’m very confident and comfortable with my accomplishments. My taste is a bit different; I like different things. I wouldn’t necessarily live like Vince does. I like documentary films and I live in New York, I wouldn’t leave New York.

AX: Now that ENTOURAGE is over, do you see yourself doing another television series or film or maybe making a documentary?

GRENIER: I am working on making a deal with HBO to make my third documentary, and hopefully that will work out. I’m also developing a couple of feature-length narrative projects to direct and produce and looking for the next new acting gig.

AX: Do you prefer acting or producing/directing?

GRENIER: I need to do both to feel really fulfilled. Acting is great, you get to get lost in role-playing, but you’re ultimately sort of beholden to directors and producers to get jobs and they tell you what to do. You never have the right perspective on whether you’ve succeeded and how you’ve done, you just have to have faith. Whereas when you’re behind the camera producing, there’s a lot more sense of control. You know where you stand in space and time.

AX: Did you ever consider any other careers?

GRENIER: I think I was very into psychology at one time, or sociology. I learned it was easier to make money at acting.

AX: Do you have a particular genre you’d like to work in next – comedy, drama, fantasy?

GRENIER: Action, probably. Action-adventure, romance. It’s just a lot of fun. Every time you see the trailer for one of Vince’s movies, that was just such a joy to be able to be a part of epic productions and explosions and running and jumping and flying.

Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly, Jerry Ferrara, Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon in ENTOURAGE - Season 8 | ©2011 HBO/Claudette Barius

AX: Of all of Vincent Chase’s movies, are there any you’d like to actually be in?

GRENIER: I’m going to start from the beginning. I’ll do HEAD ON and then all the way up. I’d like to do MEDELLIN, because I still have faith in MEDELLIN. I think it’s a good movie; I don’t care what anybody says.

AX: We never really knew very much about HEAD ON …

GRENIER: Believe me, it’s some gritty, dark, independent filmmaking.

AX: Would you do JAMES CAMERON’S AQUAMAN, one of Vince’s major projects?

GRENIER: It depends on if James Cameron is directing it [laughs]. Yeah, of course I would. It all depends on the script. There are only a handful of stories that are told, and if you can find the right combination and writer, of course.

AX: How do you feel about Vince’s career decisions over the eight seasons of ENTOURAGE?

GRENIER: I don’t really think of career in terms of bad or good decisions. You’ve got to make the decision that’s right for you, and it’s strategic on some level. You can’t do everything – you can’t always be right. There’s no such thing as a perfect film. I think the key is really just to make sure that you’re always doing something interesting and finding the roles that are going to fulfill you creatively. Not everybody needs to be a huge movie star, either. There are a lot of extremely talented working actors who are character actors who have been in millions of things and they make a good living, but you’ll never know who they are. And that’s an option as well.

AX: Now that you’re not playing a leading man, do you see yourself as a leading man, or do you want to transition into being a character actor?

GRENIER: I can be a leading man, I think [laughs]. I do embrace that, yes.

AX: Is there anything you won’t miss about ENTOURAGE?

GRENIER: No. It’s the perfect job. And we’ve been so blessed to live in it. We basically got paid to have fun, and it was shot like a film, and it was shot on location, everything was new and exciting, it was never going to the same studio every day.

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Click on Link: Mark Wahlberg talks about the status of the ENTOURAGE movie

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Interview with ENTOURAGE star Adrian Grenier

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