Jeremy Piven: 'I’ve got a professional crush on Helen Mirren'
DÉCOR
When I was filming Mr Selfridge, I stayed in a flat above the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street, so I had to wade through a lot of tourists to get in. It had a terrace where I kept my pull-up bar and kickboxing bag. I’d sit out there, smoke a cigar and run my lines.
APPS
There’s an app called Spin My Planet, which is like Instagram x 20. It takes loads of pictures and shares them like a flipbook, so you can take a bunch of snaps of a friend walking around, send them, and then swipe your thumb across the screen to make them move. It’s one of the only apps I use, because most technology breaks down around me. I’m a total caveman and it senses my weakness.
FASHION
My go-to item of clothing is my leather jacket. It’s a simple, zip-up biker’s number that I can wear in any weather. I don’t have a typical fashion body so I just wear what feels good on me.
FITNESS
Boxing is fun. I haven’t had to use it for self-defence since my school days in Chicago. My dad was an actor, and the first commercial he did was for Uncle Ben’s Rice as a white, bearded Uncle Ben. It was quite a departure from what they’d had before and that caused a lot of strange, unwanted attention, with kids screaming, ‘Where’s my rice?’ at me. You try to laugh it off, but if things get heated, you have to defend yourself.
POP CULTURE
I play the drums with a band called Bad Decisions. We cover everyone from Tom Petty to the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix to The Who. I’m not a drum solo guy but I love to play ‘Gimme Shelter’. Maybe the Stones will let me sit in with them some day.
BOXSETs
Recently, I’ve got into The Knick, a brilliant drama set in the Knickerbocker Hospital in 1900s New York, starring Clive Owen and directed by Steven Soderbergh. I found myself sitting opposite Clive Owen at a very intimate New York restaurant, The Little Owl, which is right in the middle of Greenwich Village and does great meatball sliders. I had a bunch of questions. We weren’t next to each other, just awkwardly sitting on opposite tables, but he was gracious enough to answer them.
FOOD
Someone recently asked what my death-row dinner would be. What am I on death row for? Overacting? Seriously, it would probably be some sort of Thai dish, with lemongrass, coconut and curry — a festival of goodness. Although if I wanted to be like a real inmate, I’d say five chickens.
PEOPLE
I’ve got a professional crush on Helen Mirren. She always delivers and she’s kind of ageless. I met her backstage at the Emmys, where we were both lucky enough to have hardware in our hands, and I was gushing and telling her how great she was. It was like meeting royalty, even though she’s so down to earth. I curtsied at one point.
The fourth and final series of Mr Selfridge is now showing on ITV
#OBSESSED: Mr Selfridge star Jeremy PivenObsessedThe LA-based actor and producer says London became a second home while he was shooting the ITV hit series Mr Selfridge. Whether he’s playing super agent Ari Gold in Entourage or the smooth Harry Selfridge, Piven is never short on style. So what makes him tick?
Jeremy Piven: 'I’ve got a professional crush on Helen Mirren'PublishedImageMedium width4Friday, January 22, 2016 - 12:41Off