Vincent Chase: The career behind the ‘Entourage’ character

Entourage hits cinemas in the UK this weekend, so we thought we’d take a look back at the show’s fictional A-list Hollywood actor – the great Vincent Chase.

Entourage may just have been the perfect thirty-minute comedy/drama series of the last few decades. It even had one very famous fan – Barack Obama. Supposedly loosely based on show producer Mark Wahlberg‘s own journey to the top, the plot followed fictional actor Vincent Chase as he tried to negotiate the perils of the Hollywood Machine. The show gave us a fantastic insight into the inner workings of the film industry, highlighting negotiating pay and the behind-the-scenes intricacies that we forget exist.

Vince has a rather impressive film catalogue on his CV, and as the film is released in UK cinemas this week, we thought we’d compile a handy guide of his biggest hits (and flops).

Vincent Chase grew up in Queens, New York, with his best friends Eric ‘E’ Murphy and Sal ‘Turtle’ Sassante. At the age of 24 Vince and Turtle made the move from New York to Los Angeles and moved in with his older brother and fellow actor, Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase. His first job was a commercial for Mentos which was seen by super-agent Ari Gold who signed him straight away. He then went on to have a guest spot on television series JAG and a small part in Mandy Moore flick A Walk to Remember. As his career started to take off E, who had been working in New York, joined Vince in LA and became his manager.

Head On

After E arrived in LA, Vince landed his first leading role in a film called Head On. The film gave him the opportunity to star alongside Jessica Alba and his turn had all the studios taking notice. Incidentally it was the première for this film where we first met Vince and his entourage in the series, and as such, plot details are a little sketchy.

Queen’s Boulevard

Next came a passion project, Queen’s Boulevard. The script was brought to Vince by best friend and Manager E, who also produced. It was directed by indie ‘flavour of the month’ Billy Walsh; the film focussed on Vince’s character who was running from the law in the titular New York suburb. After completion the film premièred at Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Award. The film was made in black and white and was considered to be very art house, too art house for the distributor who colourised it. Vince and his director Billy couldn’t bring themselves to get behind the changes and the film never got the wide release that it deserved.

Aquaman

During the editing of Queen’s Boulevard Vince was approached by Warner Brothers to star in their next project, a movie version of Aquaman. At this point the superhero genre was only just starting to come out of the dark ages thanks to Spider-man. With this in mind Vince first refused the project only to become interested when James Cameron agreed to direct. Sadly Cameron had different ideas as to who he’d cast, with rumours that he wanted to reunite with Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. In a bid to convince him that Vince was the one for the job they arranged for Cameron to be at the Sundance screening of Queen’s Boulevard. Cameron loved what he saw and cast him.

Production of the film was a little fraught due to Vince having a lingering romantic entanglement with co-star and former flame, Mandy Moore. Luckily everything straightened out and the film was a huge success upon release, taking $116 million during opening weekend. This made it the record holder for biggest opening weekend box office at the time, knocking previous holder Spider-man off of the top spot.

It’s a little spooky to think that in some ways Entourage predicted the future as there is currently an Aquaman film in the works. Sadly for us it won’t be directed by James Cameron, instead horror-turned-action director James Wan has the honour. We can only hope that he decides to include Cameron’s animatronic sea horses.

Medellin

After the phenomena of Aquaman had died down Vince told his agent that he wanted to work on something with a soul. As fun as his previous film was, and despite all the money he made from it, he wanted to make something that he was truly proud of. The passion project he had in mind was Medellin, a biopic about the life of Pablo Escobar. After several hi-cups, which included original director Paul Haggis having to leave the project due to schedule conflicts, Vince finally got his hands on the script, even putting his own money in to ensure the film would get made.

Re-teaming with his Queen’s Boulevard director Billy Walsh, the production was a disaster. Walsh decided to change the script halfway through, and he became a nightmare to work with after he fell for one of the actresses (played by Sofia Vegara). Upon completion the film was accepted into Cannes but went down in flames at the festival and ended up being sold to Harvey Weinstein for $1. Eventually released straight-to-video, the film was critically savaged and was seen by many as the end of Chase’s career. He was also nominated for a Razzie.

The Great Gatsby

Life post-Medellin was tough for Vince. He found himself toppled from the top of the tower, with studios insisting that he audition for jobs, something he hadn’t done for a long time. Even worse, a film that he really wanted to do, Smoke Jumpers, ended up getting shelved. Managing to get himself on board as a supporting role after doing a deal with studio head Dana Gordon, everything fell apart during shooting.

Director Verner Vollstedt was not a fan of Vince and tried to cut him out of everything. Vince, Ari and Dana all pushed back but sadly the film was halted during production and never saw the light of day. After such a bad run Chase relocated back home to New York, but his luck soon changed as E managed to score him the lead in Martin Scorsese’s modern re-telling of The Great Gatsby’.

Again, since Entourage featured the project, there has been a new Great Gatsby film. It wasn’t a modernised version, but still it’s a little odd at how good the show was at predicting the future. Who knows, maybe the studio execs used the show for ideas.

Ferrari

After The Great Gatsby Vince went right into Frank Darabont’s Ferrari. The film, based on the career of Enzo Ferrari.

The Takeover

Vince tried his hand at action in The Takeover. Director Nick Cassavetes wanted the film to be as authentic as possible and encouraged Chase to perform his own stunts. Chase agreed and ended up having a near fatal accident during the shooting of a scene involving a car stunt. The incident left him shaken and started him on a drug-fuelled downward spiral.

Hyde

After a stint in rehab Vince came back refreshed and ready to work. Studios were obviously cautious and after realising this, he chose to focus on helping his brother Drama out. Whilst in rehab he had an idea for a great television movie. Eventually he turned the attention onto his own career, and after getting an offer to star in Ari Gold’s first movie project as the head of Warner Brothers, he seized the opportunity on one condition, he also got to direct the project.

The result, which we will see in the Entourage movie, remains to be seen. The trailer points to concerns about the film, especially as Vince is seen asking for more money, having already blown his ridiculously large budget.

The could have beens

Matterhorn (turned down, went to Colin Farrell, ended up shelved)

Aquaman 2 (filming conflicted with the original shoot dates for Medellin. The part was recast to Jake Gyllenhaal)

I Wanna be Sedated (A ‘Ramones’ biopic taken hostage by Alan Gray at Warner who was bitter about Vince leaving Aquaman)

The Glimpses of the Moon (turned down in favour of Medellin)

Lost in the Clouds (a book adaptation that morphed into Silo)

Silo (never got made after the epic disaster of Medellin)

Danger Beach (the offer was never genuine, with Vince only offered it to secure first-choice Emile Hirsch)

Benji (a film about a heroic dog turned down in so that Vince could make Smoke Jumpers)

Smoke Jumpers (cancelled during production)

Air Walkers (another comic book movie. Vince lost the role after falling into the drink and drug trap.)

Find out what happens with Hyde in Entourage which is in cinemas everywhere now.