Vincent Chase
Vincent Chase is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Adrian Grenier. Named after the Head of Casting for MGM Studios in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Mr. Chase groomed actors such as Robert Pine, Linda Evans, Lee Stanley and Nancy Sinatra.
Character biography
Vincent Chase grew up in Queens, New York, along with neighborhood friends Eric, Turtle, Dom, and Cara. Vince's father was an alcoholic, and, as revealed in the final season, is estranged from the family. Eric mentioned in a Season 1 episode that Vince went to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. Vince's older brother, Johnny "Drama" Chase, is also an actor and has been living in Hollywood for at least twelve years, but with considerably less success. Chase's personal life has been an area of great speculation as he has claimed to have slept with over 1,000 women, but later denied that the number is that high. Vincent is lactose intolerant.Throughout the series, Vince talks about how he and his entourage are "living the life" after growing up with little money, at one point saying that "I came from nothing, and as much as I like the toys, I really don't need them" when told that offers for him are drying up. He is eager to share the financial and social spoils of his current stardom with them, who he thinks of as his family. While at first glance it seems that his friends are just leeches, they prove to be the ones he can depend on through thick and thin.
Vince is around 33 years old by the end of the series, his 28th birthday being the main storyline in the season 3 episode "Less Than 30". Vince's full ethnic background has never been revealed. It is implied that he has Latino ancestry when Eric argues that Vince should get the role of Pablo Escobar over actor Tom Cruise because "Tom Cruise isn't even Hispanic"; Johnny Drama also references his "Chilean blood" in the episode "The Sundance Kids." Vince claims to be part Japanese, after his agent, Ari Gold, made a racial slur referring to Japanese people. Vince replies, "C'mon Ari, my grandfather is Japanese." Vince has also stated that he is Italian during an interview for Vanity Fair. Vince and Drama are also part Irish, as revealed in the episode "I Love You Too."
Fictional career
Early career
Vincent Chase is a young Hollywood movie star described as potentially the best young actor of his generation. Chase moved to Los Angeles following his half brother Johnny Chase with friend Sal "Turtle" when the two were 24. He started his career appearing in commercials for Mentos, soon signing with agent Ari Gold who got him doing minor roles on television and cinema, the first of which was a guest spot on JAG. During this time he dated and proposed to Mandy Moore, who rejected his proposal. Soon after his best friend Eric Murphy quit his job at Sbarro, dropped out of Queensborough Community College and moved out west. Chase's breakout role was as the lead in the film Head On, co-starring Jessica Alba. After Head On, he was offered a role in the action film Matterhorn, but he passed.. Instead, Vince chooses to star in the independent film Queens Boulevard, based on the advice of his manager and best friend "E". The film is about a man presumably running from the law in Queens, New York, and was directed by filmmaker Billy Walsh. Queens Boulevard was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival upon completion and wins the Grand Jury Award.Superstardom
Because of his performance in Q.B., Vince is offered the title role in the film Aquaman, which was to be directed by James Cameron. The movie becomes a massive success, making $116 million in ticket sales on its opening weekend, breaking the record set by Spider-Man.After the success of Aquaman, Vince was offered the role of Pablo Escobar in the bio-pic Medellín, a film that he discovered and wanted to do before Aquaman, and which was set to be directed by Crash director Paul Haggis. But conflict arose when a sequel to Aquaman was greenlit with the same start date as Medellín. Medellín was the film Vince wanted to do, and he did attempt to work out a deal to do both movies at once. However, the head of Warner Bros. Studios reneged on an earlier promise to allow Vince to do Medellín. Vince was subsequently replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal for the Aquaman sequel. During his trouble of getting out of his Aquaman contract, Vince found out that he had already lost his role in Medellín to Benicio del Toro, leaving him jobless.
Eric Murphy then found a new project for Vince in a film entitled I Wanna Be Sedated, a biopic about punk-rocker Joey Ramone and his band The Ramones. But after turmoil with the film's producer Bob Ryan and with Vince's agent Ari Gold, the project was sold to Warner Bros., which refused to offer Vince another film for the rest of his career. This led to Vince firing Ari.
His new agent Amanda Daniels found him a new project entitled The Glimpses of the Moon, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel, to be directed by Sam Mendes. But Vince soon found out it might still be possible to get Medellín from his former agent Ari. In hopes of getting his dream project, Vince consequently began procrastinating on Glimpses. Vince also begins a brief romantic relationship with Amanda, after she boldly propositions him for sex, so they can "get it out of the way" - since sexual tension existed between the two ever since they began their agent-client relationship.
Fall from fame
After officially receiving an offer for Medellín at the very last minute, complications arose during the negotiations, which were taking place during the holiday of Yom Kippur. The film was dumped by the producer as a result. Feeling Amanda had let him down through this, Vince confronts her about it and plans on firing her, only to find out that the death of the project had been out of her hands. Amanda then leaves Vince, both professionally and romantically. Vince then purchases the script, Medellín, but only after selling his home. Once the script was purchased, negotiations were held with film producer Nick "Nicky" Rubenstein, to finance the project for $30 million. Vince turned to Billy Walsh as the director for the film.During the production of Medellin, a documentary was filmed showing the process and conflict that "E", Vince and Walsh go through to complete the project. Walsh decides at the beginning of filming that the film's ending is no good, and wants to rewrite the end on his own, much to "E's' dismay. The film does get completed and for now, all is good.
After the Medellín project was completed, Walsh submitted it to the Cannes Film Festival, where it was accepted. Someone then leaked a trailer of Medellín onto YouTube, and people began to rave over the film. Hype began to build so greatly that Vince and Walsh were offered the film adaptation of the novel Lost in the Clouds.
Pre-production on the film Lost in the Clouds began, with Vince slated to star and Walsh to write/direct. But when Walsh wasn't able to adapt the novel, he began work on a script called Silo, a post-apocalypse film set in the year 2075. After Ari somehow manages to sell the studio on the new project, Lost in the Clouds was dumped and pre-production on Silo began. In the meantime, while Walsh was busy writing the script for Silo, Vincent gained an office in his manager's management group, known as The Murphy Group.
When the Cannes Film Festival finally came around, hype for Medellín had grown so large that, upon arrival, Vince and Walsh were receiving multi-million-dollar offers for the film before it even premiered. The highest bidder was Yair Marx, who offered $75 million. Once the movie was finally screened, however, the reception in the theatre was overwhelmingly negative. Marx withdrew his offer, but Harvey Weingard offered to buy it for one dollar. Opting to look at what little bright side there was to things, Ari told Vince, "You should have seen Shakespeare in Love before Harvey got his scissor-hands on it."
Medellín directly goes to DVD and is savagely reviewed by Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Vince also goes on to receive a Razzie nomination for "Worst Actor". The failure also apparently lead to Silo being scrapped, and Vincent and Turtle decide to decompress in a tropical hideaway, surrounded by multiple gorgeous women. After a few months pass, Ari is informed by producer Carl Ertz that he wants Vince for his next film, Danger Beach a mid-budget genre film. Eric informs Vince of the good news, but Vince is content to go out on Medellín. Eric, Ari, and Drama fly to Mexico to get Vince to come back to L.A. for a meeting with Ertz. However, Ertz never really wanted Vince for the film to begin with. The meeting was just a ploy to get Emile Hirsch and his agent, Ari's rival Adam Davies, to do the film for less money. Despite the fact that the offer wasn't real, Vince decides that he can't go out on a box office bomb, and needs to find a new hit film to regain his stardom.
Regaining Star Power
After Vince discovers that there are no studios willing to offer him any leading roles, Eric discovers a good script for Vince from his newest clients, unknown writers Nick and L.B., called Nine Brave Souls. It is about nine firefighters on the night before the biggest fire they've ever fought. Ari does not want Vince to do another independent film because his last indie, Medellín, tanked. Figuring Vince was not going to star in Nick and L.B.'s film, Eric brings the script to Amanda. Amanda likes the script and sends it to her client Edward Norton. Edward Norton wants to make the film, but with more action sequences. However, after Ari finally reads the script he wants Vince to do the movie. Vince and Ari try to sell the script, newly titled Smoke Jumpers, to studios with Vince playing the lead role. The studios wanted the script, but not with Vince in the leading role. After realizing he wasn't going to be cast as the lead, Vincent decides to play a supporting role. Ari is set to sell the script to Steve Parles for $500,000 with Vince cast as Ray in the second lead role.Unfortunately for Vince, Edward Norton wants to buy the script along with Alan Gray, head of Warner Bros. Studios, for $1,000,000 against $2,000,000 if the movie is made. Vince loses his supporting role because Warner Bros. purchases the film. Vince now has a difficult career move to make. He can hold out for a movie he likes, and risk going bankrupt, or he can do a new Benji film for $3,000,000. Thinking it will hurt his chances to regain his status as a movie star, Vince chooses to forgo Benji. He decides he must find a way to get back on Smoke Jumpers.
Ari takes matters into his own hands to try to get Vince back on Smoke Jumpers. Ari plans a seemingly harmless day of golf with Alan Gray. Ari knows Alan is a compulsive gambler so intends to hustle Alan, and bet Vince into the movie. However, his plan backfires because Alan's golf instructor is none other than Phil Mickelson. After Ari loses a close game to Alan, Alan becomes enraged because Ari brought up the subject of Vince and Smoke Jumpers after promising he wouldn't. Alan becomes so angry that he has a heart attack on the golf course and dies. At Alan's funeral Ari speaks with John Ellis, Alan's boss. Ari tells Ellis that Alan promised Vincent Smoke Jumpers, but Ellis has other things to discuss with Ari. He wants Ari to take Alan's old job and run Warner Bros. Pictures. This would put Ari in a position to not only get Vince back on Smoke Jumpers, but to give Vince roles in any future films financed by Warner Bros. Studio. When Vince hears this information, he has a bittersweet feeling because he wants to do Smoke Jumpers, but he doesn't want to lose Ari as his agent. Ari reconsiders taking the job, but gets bad news from his fellow Hollywood friend and former flame, Dana Gordon. Vince's former agent Amanda Daniels would run the studio if Ari doesn't take the job. Ari and Vince do not have a good relationship with Amanda after she fired him as her client.
Ari goes to Amanda's office to try and bury the hatchet with Amanda. Ari offers to turn down the job if she puts Vince in Smoke Jumpers. Amanda calls Ari's bluff thinking that he is going to turn down the job anyway. This makes Ari extremely angry, and he storms out of Amanda's office to go meet with John Ellis. Vince goes to meet with Ari under the assumption that Ari had taken the position at the studio. However, to everyone's surprise Ari turned down the job. He informs Vince and Eric that he recommended his friend Dana Gordon, and she was given the job as studio head instead of Amanda. During Vince's meeting with Ari, Dana calls to thank Ari for the recommendation. On speakerphone, Dana assures Vincent that he is in Smoke Jumpers for his full quote. Ari is still Vince's agent, Eric's best friend's career is back on track, Vince is no longer in danger of going bankrupt, and is no longer in danger of ending his movie career on a box office bomb.
Unfortunately, Vince has heated confrontations with the director of Smoke Jumpers. The director fires Vince from the set of the movie. This leads to an altercation between the director and Dana, Ari, Vince, E, and John Ellis. John Ellis makes an executive decision to drop the project and Vince, E, Turtle, and Drama head back to Queens.