Jeremy Piven has The Goods in used car comedy

Upon meeting Jeremy Piven recently in a swanky Toronto hotel to talk about his new comedy The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard, two things are immediately apparent: he is nothing like Ari Gold and he takes his job very seriously.

Given his Emmy-winning performance as the abrasive, foul-mouthed agent on HBO’s hit show “Entourage”, Piven’s soft-spoken, laid back nature comes as a bit of a shock. But the Chicago native is unfazed by this inevitable assumption, happy instead to focus on his work and leave public perception at the door.

Piven arrives this summer at the centre of The Goods, playing Don Ready, a loud-mouthed used car huckster who has the gift of gab and a knack for moving cars off lots. When Ben Selleck’s (James Brolin) auto dealership faces bankruptcy, he calls on the car cowboy to save the day with a blowout July 4th extravaganza that involves a politely deranged DJ, roaming alligators, a riot and maybe even a sale or two.

A veteran of film junket tours, Piven readily admits his character’s nose-to-the-grindstone, “sell hard” attitude shares much with his chosen profession.

“I have to go on the road just like Don Ready and sell the metal,” he says, referring to one of his character’s selling mantras. “My father, who passed away, was a Chicago stage actor and I remember he would be directing himself in plays and I would look up and he would be hanging the lights and working the light grid. And I watched him before the show, on the phone, trying to call people and get an audience. He was always working it and we have to be. It’s not enough just to be talented or to work hard.”

And he should know. The 40-something thesp showed drive and the ability from the start, launching his acting career at the tender age of eight and going on to appear in over 40 films as well as bagging four Emmys for his work on “Entourage”. The Goods may mark the first time in well over a decade that Piven is playing the lead, but if you were to ask him, the timing seems about right.

“All of those [acting] experiences lead to being able to contribute to this one. And it’s all a process,” he offers. “What I was essentially doing before ‘Entourage’ was looking for film roles and taking anything with a brilliant actor that I could find to learn, like taking a smaller role with Dustin Hoffman, or whoever just to learn more, and staying away from TV. And now that this has come… I’m not putting a ton of pressure on myself. I know realistically this is a fork in the road for me, if this movie does as well as I believe that it could do. And I do think it’s a genuinely entertaining movie.”

As the go-for-broke leader of a motley crew of road warriors, Ready is a brash, rootless, ultimately loveable blowhard who travels from city to city selling cars and is more likely to take meetings while balancing his beer on a stripper’s rump than in a boardroom. In other words, he’s a sleaze. It seems rather fitting, then, that Piven was handed the script after producer Kevin Messick caught his SNL monologue and thought it showed the “perfect balance of smarminess and charm.”

“It feels great to know that some guy saw me do a monologue and handed me a script. But when I think of myself, I don’t think of myself of smarmy,” Piven deadpans. “Once again, I don’t know how healthy it would for me to put too much energy into how I’m being perceived.”

Piven may not be overly concerned with his image but he doesn’t hesitate to enthusiastically share his high opinion of his Goods co-stars, including Will Ferrell, who appears in a killer cameo and produced the film under his Gary Sanchez banner along with partner Adam McKay.

“Will is a machine. There are few improvs that aren’t usable with him. Not only usable but like kinda laser-sharp – it’s amazing. You see him and go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why he gets paid a great deal of US currency to do what he does.’ But at the same time, I don’t think he overshadows the rest of the movie. I think Craig Robinson who plays the DJ is a genius, I think Dr. Ken (Jeong) is a superstar, Ed Helms is, Kathryn Hahn is and the list goes on and on and on. They haven’t had the shots that Will Ferrell has and any one of them could take the lead. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of this movie: I just want all of them to blow up.”

And The Goods may indeed be the film that cements Piven as a big-screen leading man, elevating him to the coveted Will Ferrell income bracket. But one gets the distinct impression that even if it doesn’t, Piven will continue to sell the metal for the sheer thrill and love of his craft.

“I’m not delusional at this point, in terms of what I’m putting out there. I’ve really watched [the movie] with] as many audiences as I could and they genuinely enjoy this movie from beginning to end. I think it’s really one of these grassroots things, where if people get the word out, we’ll do fine. And that’s all you can really do.”

The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. opens in Cineplex Theatres August 14.