Interview: Adrian Grenier

Interview by Clint Morris

Interview with Adrian Grenier
Star of the film and TV series The Devil Wears Prada and Entourage.

Who better to play an up-and-coming young Hollywood star that has just scored his big break - than an up-and-coming young Hollywood star who has just scored his first big break?

Actor Adrian Grenier is so ‘rock and roll’ that you expect to hear the pound of a drum after he responds to each of your questions. The HBO network felt the hip young actors rhythm too, and snapped up the relative newcomer – he’d done a couple of minor films, the most successful being the teen comedy Drive Me Crazy (1999) with Melissa Joan Hart – to play the cool, cocky and newly successful Hollywood actor Vincent Chase in Entourage.  Seeing as Grenier, 29, is at that exact stage in his career as Chase – in other words, about to explode! – and shares more than a few similarities with his on-screen character, it’s as good a fit as socks and shoes. Clint Morris gets the dirt on both Entourage and Grenier’s hot new movie, The Devil Wears Prada.

Brooklyn-born hipster Grenier (pronounced Gren-yeah), who got his first starring role in the little seen but positively reviewed film The Adventures of Sebastian Cole in 1998 and later appeared in the likes of Cecil B.Demented (2000) and Hart’s War (2002) with Bruce Willis, says he wasn’t initially interested in doing the series at first. At the end of the day, it was his disinclination that mad him even more appropriate for the part.

"I was learning Spanish in a little Mexican village when my managers approached me about the show”, explains Grenier, on location in New York where he’s shooting a new film with Meryl Streep. “I wasn't really interested in doing television, so I pretty much ignored them”.

Having seen some of his fine work on film, the producers were convinced Grenier was the right man for the job – so continued to pursue him. Eventually, “they convinced me to fly up to LA”, admits Grenier, who expressly told the producers before leaving the tarmac that he didn’t want to audition but he’d be happy to hear their ideas.

The premise – an up and coming young actor who’s essentially managed by his long time circle of friends - hooked him from that first meeting. “It was unique”, he says.

The actor doesn’t want to admit that the only reason he was selected for the role is because he and Chase have a lot more in common than the same facial structure, but he will acknowledge that they have got similar personalities, and in some circumstances, act curiously analogous.

In the show for instance, Chase is renowned for knocking back film offers, and it’s only when the producers come begging that Chase will begin to consider an offer. Grenier says he did exactly that with Entourage. “I think HBO gave me the job because I did exactly what Vince would've done. So I guess I gave them the character without auditioning because Vince probably wouldn't have auditioned either!”, he laughs.

Grenier, a drum player in his college years, says that although the show is loosely based on the life of its creator, singer-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg, he didn’t want to approach it as if he was playing the former Funky Bunch front man. “The show was inspired by Wahlberg and his buddies, but Vince was never supposed to be Mark”, says Grenier, who like Wahlberg, is also a musician. “Movie stars are unique, so I've intentionally tried to create a character that's not based on anyone I know."

A plus in getting to play ‘it boy’ Vincent Chase is the women his character gets to romance, admits Grenier. In nearly each and every episode, the heartthrob seems to have a different lady – or ladies, plural, as is sometimes the case – on his arm or, even more, in his bed. Yet, despite sharing steamy conversations or sexy screen kisses with the likes of Jessica Alba, Sara Foster, Scarlett Johansson, and Jaime Pressly, the one female he likes working with the most is the one girl he hasn’t kissed – yet! – on the show. Debi Mazar, the real-life best friend of Madonna and formerly the music legend’s make-up artist, plays Shauna, Chase’s diligent publicist. “Mazar is such a talented force of nature, and she is so sweet”, he gushes. “I love working with her”.

Since the success of the TV show, Grenier’s career has skyrocketed. He’s gone from little-known Independent movie actor – not unlike Entourage’s Chase, who gets his break in a low-budget film called Head On, as we see in the first few episodes of the series, and works his way up to A list starring roles in films like James Cameron’s Aquaman – to one of the hottest talents in Hollywood. “My life is getting closer to Vince's by the second. He'd better watch out, I'm going to start stealing roles from him,” he cheekily laughs.

Grenier is hot. As we speak, he’s in his trailer whilst on a break from filming a scene for the film The Devil Wears Prada, in which he co-stars with the legendary Meryl Streep and local boy Simon Baker.

A wicked new comedy, based on the best-selling novel by Lauren Weisberger, it tells of a young writer who hits the big time when she’s hired to work for New York’s most celebrated publisher. Grenier says what attracted him to this role – besides the fact that he’s getting to share screens with the wonderful Streep! – is that it’s a chance for him to get back home to New York for a couple of months. “It’s just so good to be back. I grew up here, so you wouldn’t believe how much fun it is to shoot in Manhattan…it’s the old neighbourhood”, the actor, who shoots Entourage in California, says. “As for the film, I think people are really going to enjoy it. I really do.”, he proudly confesses.

Co-star Anne Hathaway is already predicting big things from Prada, recently declaring Meryl Streep a shoe-in for an Oscar next year. “I can’t tell you how great it was to work with Meryl, even though she had to be a bitch in every scene we were in together. I wouldn’t be surprised if she won her third Best Actress Oscar for this role”.

A hit TV show, a budding movie career, the knowing that he can always make some money on the side as a musician should the acting work dry up (ha!) – the world’s a fine place to be at the moment if you’re Adrian Grenier. “Life is good these days I’ll tell ya. I'm having a lot of fun."

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is now showing