As the bro-favorite "Entourage" winds down, Jerry Ferrara is getting more attention than ever.
His character, Turtle, is a departure from his coiffed and polished co-stars, but he is certainly beloved. Now after Turtle and Ferrara have gone through a serious transformation, he sits down with NYMag to talk about what his new look means and the show's last season.
You’ve obviously lost a lot of weight. Were you ever concerned that your slimmed-down look would make Turtle less Turtle-y?
When I first started on this whole new regimen it didn’t really cross my mind, because I didn’t really know how far it would go. But once I was into it for about a year, that’s when it did start to kick in like, Uh, maybe this will be a little bit jarring for people. Doug Ellin, when I first walked back into the office after not having seen him for a few months, he was like, “Dude, what did you do?" Fortunately, it fit the way the character was going in terms of his evolution.Over the years, even before your transformation, Turtle has always dated some of the most beautiful women on Entourage. What's the secret to his swagger?
Good writing [laughs]. That was definitely a conversation that I had with Doug Ellin when he originally wrote the Turtle/Jamie-Lynn [Sigler] story. It was obviously done in a comedic way, like no one would believe that this girl would date this guy. As far as what the attraction is? I don’t really know. I guess if you had to say “swagger” — I don’t really know if the character has that. He’s just an honest, blue-collar guy who’s very loyal to his friends, and I think he can be charming. I think he can be a funny, witty, charming guy.
For more, click over to NYMag.