You want to hug it out, bitch? As the abused assistant Lloyd on Entourage, Rex Lee has made dealing with Ari Gold’s (Jeremy Piven in the role of his career) racist and homophobic barbs the cornerstone of his career. Together, the two characters provide hilarious chemistry that has allowed Lloyd more screen time on Entourage.
Before appearing on the HBO breakout hit, Lee had previous experience on other television shows, work he described simply as “crappy.” But the HBO show based on Mark Wahlberg’s life and experiences in Hollywood caught Lee’s eye before he even snagged the gig as Lloyd, he said.
“I was a huge fan. When I auditioned for the second season, I was so excited just to audition; I loved the scripts,” Lee said. “But when I got the job and I got the scripts, I just loved them even more than the other ones.”
As Lloyd, Lee replaced Gold’s previous assistant, Emily (Samaire Armstrong, The O.C.), who had been fired after she broke up with Eric (Kevin Connolly, who appeared in The Notebook before Entourage broke through). But joining a show with a close-knit crew wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be, Lee said.
“My role wasn’t supposed to last forever. If I had shown up and sucked, they’d have fired me and hired a new assistant. Nothing was guaranteed, so I felt like I needed to enjoy the stay as long as it lasted,” he said.
But Lee’s longer-than-expected stay on Entourage allowed the character to develop in a positive way, he said. Instead of just being a gay cliché, the character has become multi-dimensional, culminating in a supportive speech to Ari at the end of Entourage’s second season – a scene Lee describes as his favorite.
“They gave me that script really far in advance – that speech in the car was the second to last episode, but because of the shooting schedule, that was the very last scene with live actors that was shot for that season,” Lee said. “They made me wait a really long time to deliver that speech. On some level I was starting to psych myself out, but it came out well.”
The heartfelt speech gave Lloyd a greater depth of character – and despite the friction between the Lloyd and Gold, there is also an undeniable comedic chemistry, Lee said.
“I really enjoy working with Jeremy, scenes with him are great. The truth is, there wasn’t any [chemistry] to develop,” he said. “When we started working together, we clicked, I guess.”
In terms of the upcoming end of this season, Lee was able to shed a little light on what we may see concerning the role of Ari and Lloyd in the early stages of this season, as Vince (Adrian Grenier, The Devil Wears Prada) looks for a new agent.
“We’re there, and we have a presence. I thought it was kinda cute at the end of part one; people were freaking out that Ari got fired,” Lee said. “He’s fired on the show, not real life – the episodes that start April 8, Ari and Lloyd are there because there’s an arc about these overtures that Ari and Vince make to try and find their way back to each other.”
So get ready for some more hugging it out – the third season of Entourage begins Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO.
Contact reporter Tripp Laino at tripp@umd.edu.
