Las Vegas Weekly

August 13, 2009 · 9:59 PM

Jeremy Piven finds peace as a pushy salesman

By Melissa Arseniuk

Actor Jeremy Piven poses on the red carpet during the Las Vegas premiere of The Goods at Planet Hollywood on Wednesday.

Photo: Leila Navidi

Jeremy Piven not only brings the goods, he lets them all hang out in his new movie.

The actor, best known for his role on the HBO series Entourage and his off-screen luck with the ladies, was in Las Vegas last night for the premiere of his new film, The Goods.

His starring role is the biggest one he has had to date.

“It’s the first time I’ve had my huge head there, on the side of anything,” Piven said, gesturing toward a promotional poster as he stood on the red carpet outside the Planet Hollywood Theater.

The graphic shows Piven front and center, flanked by a few of his very funny co-stars: Ving Rhames (Duncan in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction), Kathryn Hahn (Alice in Step Brothers) and former The Office co-stars Ed Helms (Stu Price in The Hangover) and Craig Robinson (Delaney in Zack and Miri Make a Porno and the club doorman in Knocked Up).

Will Ferrell also appears in The Goods, though his on-screen role is considerably smaller than Piven’s.

The film was produced by the company Ferrell co-owns and was directed by Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan.

The cast almost seems to have cherry-picked each other from their previous projects: Hahn and Ferrell worked together on Step Brothers; David Koechner was in Anchorman with Ferrell and is an alum of The Office, too; Jonathan Sadowski has been on Entourage – and the connections don’t stop there.

Piven said the combination of talent made for a fun set and a funny movie.

“It’s the funniest movie I’ve ever made, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s really, really funny and I love to share laughs with people. … I can’t wait to unleash this movie on people.”

The Goods opens in theaters tomorrow.

Piven said his silver screen role shares a few similarities with his small screen persona, Ari Gold.

“He could be Ari Gold’s trashy cousin,” Piven said of his character, Don Ready. “The people that kind of love Ari Gold will definitely get their money’s worth. … He is definitely a fast-talking, abrasive car salesman … (who) goes through a journey that Ari Gold would never go through.”

“For me it was just amazing … It was more … cathartic than playing Ari Gold,” he said. “I got to let it all hang out.”

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