Actor Jeremy Piven discusses his labor of love project, 'The Performance' with Jen BT from 104.3 JAMS in Chicago
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00All right, what's up, Jen B.T. from 104.3 Jams. We are in the Blue Cross Blue Shield
00:07performance stage with Chicago's very own Jeremy Piven. How are you?
00:12I'm fantastic. Thank you.
00:13I'm so glad you are in town. You're promoting your new movie, The Performance, and you've
00:19been talking about this is the best work of your life. Tell us a little bit about the
00:22movie and why you think that.
00:25Well, this is going to be a very Chicago thing to say. I don't think it. I know it. No, I
00:30really do. It took me 15 years to make this film, and every year that I couldn't find
00:38the funds and they said no, I got better at tap dancing because my mother, Joyce Piven,
00:43gave me this short story 15 years ago out of The New Yorker. Here we are, Harold May,
00:50he's a Jewish tap dancer in 1937. Oh, I can do this. Actors are totally delusional. I
00:55was just like, I'll learn how to tap dance. But it's almost like our superpower. Every
01:03year they said no, I got better at tap until magically, you and I were talking about timing
01:07as you walked up, the universe aligned. Right now, this is the perfect time for this film
01:13to come out. And if you don't give up, which I didn't, on the other side of that is a miracle.
01:20Even the reviewers are saying career-defining performance. I mean, I'm 80 movies into the game,
01:25and this is the best work of my life. But also, anti-Semitism is on the rise,
01:30and I play a Jewish tap dancer that hides his identity to dance for Hitler. And six
01:38million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. I think a lot of people get their news from
01:42TikTok. And I'm not slamming TikTok. It's just, we need to know what really happened
01:49to inform where we're at right now. This movie isn't some didactic film where it's going to hit
01:57you over the head, and it's a really fun, wild romp that people are emotionally, it's a gut
02:04punch for them. And we opened here this weekend at the River East.
02:11Wow. Yeah, AMC River East.
02:13Yeah, and we're here for a few more shows. And Chicago's really showing up for me,
02:18and it means the world to me.
02:19Oh, absolutely. Obviously, we love you. Anyone from Chicago, it's Chicago Pride.
02:24I love that you're doing special screenings here. You've been in the audience watching
02:28the movie with fans.
02:29Yeah. I'm doing Q&As after like this. We're hugging it out. We're taking pictures.
02:35First hundred people that show up until Friday will get free posters and signed and the whole
02:41thing.
02:42That's so amazing. And it's actually, like you said, a period piece during the 1930s,
02:47am I right? Are we going to see some of the Jeremy Piven, you're so funny, you're so
02:52charismatic, or is this more complex? Is it more of a serious character role for you?
02:57It's, you know, I was...
02:59And was that challenging for you?
03:01No, it's funny. People say the reviews, best reviews of my life, and they say I disappeared
03:09into the role. I didn't disappear. I reappeared, to be honest with you, because everything
03:15I've been through in my life informs who I am as a person and that I can then access
03:22as an actor. So at certain moments in the film that the stakes couldn't be any higher
03:28and I get insanely emotional, you know, listen, I've been on stage since I was eight years
03:33old here in Evanston. And, you know, and then performing in Chicago my whole life.
03:39Chicago, people want to know, why are all these actors from Chicago? It's because of
03:44the community. You guys show up for us. We're performing in a 99 seat house. You guys are,
03:48it's full. So we keep getting our reps. So by the time we get to Hollywood, I'm ready
03:54to go. Do you know what I mean?
03:55Oh, absolutely.
03:57Not to slam anyone else, but they may not be because they don't have, Chicago's very
04:01unique. Not every city supports live theater. So I was very lucky and my parents at the
04:10Pivot Theater in Evanston just, it was very empowering. My father was, you know, very
04:15hard on me, you know, but that tough love, I mean, I was rehearsing one time and he said
04:21to me, there's one actor in this room and you ain't it right now. And it was in front
04:25of all my friends and it just broke me, but I came back the next day and was a lot better.
04:30Wow. That's incredible. So talking about your Evanston, Chicago roots and, you know,
04:35we're a throwback station here in Chicago. So I like to get nostalgic a lot, especially
04:39with people here in Chicago. So little Jeremy, you're walking the mean streets of Evanston.
04:44You got your yellow Walkman or your non-skip CD player. What are you listening to?
04:49I'm listening to Parliament, P-Funk, you know, make my funk the P-Funk. I like to get funked
04:55up. And then into 546 in the morning, crack a dawn and now I'm yawning. Wipe the cold
05:01from my eyes. Who was this page of me and why? It's my brother Pop from the barbershop
05:05talking about the intricate plot. Motherfuckers want to stick me from a flypaper. Yo, love,
05:09drop the caper. Remember those dudes back in Brownville? So that type of stuff I was listening
05:13to. Okay. This is how you know he's from Chicago. Where are you at? Open mic,
05:18subterranean in Wicker Park. Like you need to go and we need some freestyle from Jeremy Pivot.
05:25It's freestyle, but no style is free. Yeah. No, I grew up, you know, being one of the only white
05:31boys on my football team and the black community really supports me. And it means the world to me
05:39because there's no more honest community, to be honest with you. Like, you know, as a stand up
05:45now as well as an actor, when you perform in front of a black crowd, if you're bringing it,
05:53they're going to show you love. If you're not, you better be ready. They're going to be very
05:59honest with you. And so when I have people coming up to me on the street, you know, and they're
06:04showing me love, man, they're like, man, we fuck with you. You know, and I'm like, oh, thank you,
06:08sir. I love this. Absolutely. So I get I get love from the community. And also like I this film is
06:16about the absurdity of anti-Semitism and racism. And the way that I contribute to this conversation
06:24is by doing what I do best. I'm an actor. I tell stories. So you can sit and watch this film and go,
06:29oh, man, I didn't know this history about, you know, all of this. And also the Nazis
06:38were killing the homosexuals, Jews. And then and then we in our story, I don't want to give
06:44away too much, but this is about revealing the oppressor and the oppressed, whether it's the
06:50black community, the Jews, whatever. And then having you think about because it's really also
06:55about my character really compromises who he is for success and pays the ultimate price.
07:01It's a cautionary tale, but it's also a beautiful way to expose the absurdity of racism.
07:08And and anti-Semitism. And to me, there's no greater honor because, you know, I grew up in
07:15a community that was integrated and I was so lucky, like, you know, you know, a lot of times
07:21you see white boys and, you know, they maybe are they love the hip hop community and people think,
07:28oh, you're co-opting this culture. It's like, well, I grew up immersed in it. Like I'm so old
07:35that like we were old school hip hop was new to me. That's how old I am. And people were like in,
07:41you know, playing football, banging on the lockers. I was a guy banging on lockers and
07:44we would freestyle, you know, and so I grew up like that. And I remember our coach at Evanston,
07:50the Wildcats, said to us, you're going to hear the N-word on that field today. Just just hold
07:54it together and play through and I'm going the N-word. What's going on? And so I was introduced
08:00to racism. I didn't understand. I had to be taught what racism was because I grew up being
08:07surrounded by people that didn't look like me. And I was bar mitzvahed. And so the black kids
08:11had never put on a yarmulke. So the black kids thought it was a pocket square. They thought it
08:15was a Frisbee. You know what I mean? I ended up wrapping my haft Torah portion. I love that. I
08:20wrapped in Hebrew, rabotan, neberei, yehisha, madona, meirach, meitavi, adolam, till the sweat
08:26runs off my balls. I love you. Remember that. And they were like, get out, get out.
08:31We need that elbow. They took away my Jew card. Can't be cheap. I can't eat bagels.
08:36I love that. Okay, let's go. Oh my gosh. No, I can absolutely relate coming from a melting pot
08:40community myself. My parents, you know, like where could we afford piano lessons? We're going to take
08:46her to the South Shore Country Club. Even though she grew up in Logan Square, you just drove
08:50wherever, you know, you could find the affordable way to do art. So I appreciate that.
08:54And we support the arts here. Yeah, we all, we support the arts. Yeah. And it's been a while
08:59since I tap danced since I was probably five. So I know that's hard. Kickball change and all that.
09:05So I can't wait to see you tap dance. I think it's going to be an incredible run. Oscar buzz,
09:10can we speak it into existence? Because we started talking at 1111. So we're rooting for you and
09:16catch Jeremy Piven in the performance at AMC River East. Yes. I'll meet you there. We'll hug it out.
09:22It's for the next few days. It's Chicago stand up for me. And I love that. And then if we do,
09:27we get the numbers that we will. I'll come back and do a premiere. We can all hug it out
09:33and let's go. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Jeremy. I love it. Thank you.