Emmy-winning actor Jeremy Piven, best known for his role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold in the television series “Entourage,” accepted a Career Achievement Award from the Sedona International Film Festival on Thursday, Feb. 27, following a screening of his new film “The Performance,” based on Arthur Miller’s 2002 short story of the same name.
“This is the best role in my life, because I identified with this character more than any character,” Piven told the SIFF audience. “I’ve ever played in my life. I felt like I was doing a documentary.”
The film, directed by his sister Shira Piven, featured Jeremy Piven as Harold May, an American Jewish tap dancer who makes a bargain with a Nazi attache portrayed by Robert Carlyle.
“Tensions rise when they’re lavishly welcomed, but Harold senses something sinister,” the film’s synopsis stated. “As the curtain rises, the troupe learns their audience is none other than Adolf Hitler himself. Trapped in a web of deception, with escape seemingly impossible, Harold must decide whether to dance for the devil or risk everything for their freedom.”
Piven said that his mother Joyce Piven, an actress and director who was the cofounder of the Compass Players and a noted acting coach, had introduced him and his sister to the original story.
“She said, ‘There’s something in here for you,’ Piven said to the audience. “And so I got the rights from Rebecca Miller, who is Arthur Miller’s daughter, and I’ve been paying for them for 15 years. The funny thing about life is, if you stick it out, no matter what you’re doing, you’re going to make it because they’re all going to laugh at you, and they’re all going to say, ‘You’re too old to do this role’ … ‘Ari Gold can’t tap dance.’”
Piven said it took a decade to secure financing for the film and that he used the time to learn to tap dance, drawing on his previous experience as a drummer: “I’m a drummer, but to play the drums with your feet is the hardest thing in the world.”
“[Harold] is as close to me as anything I’ve ever played,” Piven said. “The reviews have been ‘career defining performance,’ ‘just disappeared into the role.’ I didn’t disappear into the role. I reappeared.”
“You know, when you’re done with a water bottle and you crinkle it, that’s what it sounded like when I hit the ground,” Piven said of breaking his ribs while filming an action scene. “So I was like, oh, they’re broken, and I can’t breathe, so I took a bunch of painkillers and didn’t sleep and just kept shooting. The reality is it’s a small price to pay … because it is a very empowering feeling to know nothing could stop you.”
Piven said that he saw parallels between his character’s priorities and his own in that they were both artists looking for an audience.
He is still looking for a distributor for the film.
On Feb. 28, SIFF screened the 2023 film “Sweetwater” that also included Piven among the cast alongside Everett Osborne as Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. “Sweetwater was born to change the game,” the film’s synopsis stated. “Revered as the father of basketball as it’s now known and loved by millions, Harlem Globetrotters phenom Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton overcame a lifetime of barriers and a barrage of discrimination to become the first African-American to join the NBA.”
Director Martin Guigui said that it took almost 30 years and 60 rewrites of the script to get “Sweetwater” onto the screen and that the lead role was not cast until six weeks into pre-production.
“[Osborne] had done his homework … there was no stunt doubles,” Guiguisaid. “Every shot you saw go in was [Osborne] and a lot of those were one take. And then the second half of [Osborne’s audition] video was [Osborne], who had set himself up with sweat in the locker room scene, saying, ‘This game is not meant for me. I don’t belong in the NBA. I belong on the streets.’ And the way he did that, the vernacular that he captured, the authenticity, the truth within the way that he did it, there was a lot of purity.”
