How Mike Tyson Reacted When Jeremy Piven Made Fun of Him off Script in ‘Entourage’

Mike Tyson has appeared in over a few TV shows and movies during his time away from boxing. One of the projects he lent his image to was the television series Entourage. But Tyson was thrown for a loop when Piven started ad-libbing as his character Ari Gold.

Mike Tyson once shared what it was like to work on ‘Entourage’

Tyson was one of the many celebrities who made an appearance on the hit HBO show Entourage. There, he shared a scene with Jeremy Piven’s slick-talking agent Ari Gold. When he was offered an opportunity to star in the show, Tyson was more than thrilled. He was slowly building his acting resume over the years, and wanted to prove his worth as a potential actor.

“You better believe I had all my lines down pat,” he once posted on The Player’s Tribune.

But Piven pulled Tyson to the side, and warned the boxer that he wasn’t going to stick entirely to the script.

“On the set of the show, Piven comes up to me before our scene and says, ‘Hey Mike, I’m gonna throw a curveball in there. Be ready,’” Tyson recalled.

This caught Tyson by surprise. But when Tyson and Piven started the scene, for a while it seemed that Piven would stick to the script after all.

“The scene’s starting off O.K. It’s me and Ari Gold, sitting in his office sitting in chairs next to each other,” Tyson recalled. “In the scene, I’m asking Ari about getting a role on the new Black Brady Bunch sitcom, with Jessica Simpson as my wife. Ari is trying to be nice, but secretly he knows it won’t happen. He’s supposed to just be cool and let me down easy. Piven’s not changing any lines at first, so I think I’m safe. But then he starts ad-libbing. He starts making fun of me. He makes some remark about me biting off an ear. There it is. That’s not in the script.“

Tyson took Piven’s ad-libbing in stride, however, and reacted in-character accordingly.

“But I was ready. Instead of responding, I just put my head down and start shaking it. It was the same head-shaking movement I’d watched Jimmy Stewart do in a movie scene where he was expressing shame and disbelief. I don’t know where I saw it, but the scene had stuck with me. I’m sure my version wasn’t very good, but I was proud that I took his curveball and responded. I got out of the scene alive,” Tyson said.

Jeremy Piven gave Mike Tyson a very encouraging phonecall about acting

Acting was something that Tyson was genuinely interested in pursuing. Although he admitted that he wasn’t as natural with the craft as with sports. Still, Tyson didn’t let the steep learning curve deter him at the time, and was determined to improve.

“I’m not an acting expert. I’ll be the first one to tell you that. People said back in the day, ‘Mike? He’s a killer in the ring. He’s a natural.’ But I’m not a natural actor. I’m not a natural on stage at all,” Tyson said. “Everything I can do now on stage, I had to learn. I’ll be the first to tell you that. To get better, I’ve had to fail. A lot. On stage, your success and your failure is right there for everyone to see. You’re naked in front of total strangers. Failure is ever-present, hanging above you, staring at you.”

Entourage star Jeremy Piven ended up providing Tyson some much-needed words of encouragement. Piven saw some of Tyson’s work, and called the boxing legend out of the blue to voice his support.

“This was back in 2011. It was actually Jeremy Piven. This was before I did Entourage, so I’d never met the guy. I don’t even know how he got my number. But I swear, it was the first call I got,” Tyson said. “’I grew up on Broadway, Mike. I grew up on stage. Anything you need, just let me know. That was just a whoa moment for me. Jeremy Piven? He kicked me in the balls with that one. A heavy punch. I didn’t know what to say, it was just incredible. I was just thinking, ‘That was beautiful.’”

Tyson asserted that he and Piven maintained a deep friendship over the years, but they never talked about boxing. Instead, they only discussed acting.

“Our conversations are all over the place. One time I was telling him all about the stage play Porgy and Bess because I was watching a version of it on TV, and he was encouraging me to watch different characters and try to learn from them,” Tyson recalled.