Jeremy Piven: Clerk to Defendant in Twenty Short Years

Jeremy Piven’s bounced back and forth between small time, but well received work and some enormous hits – both critically and in the old pocket book. And as he continues on as Ari Gold in Entourage it’s worth taking a look at some of what made Piven what he is today – it’s something more than a smarmy, self important dude even as he portrays those inclinations so well on the small screen. But defining an actor is not only a difficult thing to do, but in the end, completely fruitless. So instead, a cursory look at how he’s cropped up over time seems to be just as significant.

I’d not seen Singles in close to a decade when I spotted it sitting amongst a pile of trite DVDs being readied for return to whatever public library was the library of choice at the time. My friend made clear that the flick was picked up by a roommate and not herself. Regardless, the disc wound up in the DVD player. And while most of the film was a series of silly romantic comedy tropes that could have been guessed at prior to viewing, the brief time that Piven spent on screen gave Singles its most endearing scene.

For whatever reason Piven generally gets (or got) cast as a slackery looking, mentally questionable character. And in Singles he’s a clerk at a drug store - surprise. As the lead of the film approaches the counter in an attempt to purchase a pregnancy test and a flower (yes, that’s darling) Piven launches into some spiel that recounts the duo’s past glories at parties as he attempts to approximate a deejay mixing two records together. It’s odd that such a small and in the end inconsequential scene would wind up being the most memorable – to me, at least – but that’s just how good Piven is at his craft.

A few years on, PCU cropped up. Another low budget, middle of the road endeavor for the actor, even if this time around he snagged a pretty big role. And while most of the film is lost in my mind, apart from the fact that George Clinton crops up and the singer from Hepcat is Piven’s buddy throughout the film, PCU marked a new level of visibility for the actor despite the film not doing too much in the box office department. Never the main consideration for Piven, it would have been nice to have a hit under his belt.

Instead, Piven toiled in tangential roles on some bigger features, eventually affording his inclusion in that HBO show – and eventually wining a few Emmys. A recent return to the theater, which ended prematurely, resulted in a bit of legal jostling, but nothing that a court decision couldn’t work out in Piven’s favor. It’s odd to think that the actor went from drug store clerk to litigious defendant within twenty years, but that’s how show business works, I suppose. That last story alone could even be worked into Piven’s television role, but we’ll hafta wait for that.