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It has been mentioned before, but Billy is based on show creator Doug Ellin's high-school friend and Entourage writer: Rob Weiss. Excerpts from an August 7, 2007 interview in the New York Observer:
HOLLYWOODRob Weiss, a writer and executive producer of the popular HBO series Entourage and the inspiration for its bombastic director character Billy Walsh, was sitting outside at the Bourgeois Pig, a dingy coffeehouse at the foot of Beachwood Canyon. He looked wary.
Mr. Weiss nervousness with the press dates back to his days as the badly behaved writer-director of Amongst Friends, a film about young, affluent, aspiring gangsters (Goodfellas meets Metropolitan) that was the darling of the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. The film put Mr. Weiss, then 26, in the full glare of the media spotlight (he was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and Bruce Weber), but his self-important, swaggering tough-guy persona didnt always come across well in print.
In one profile published in now-defunct Premiere magazine, Mr. Weiss, a former club promoter and dropout of the New Schools film program, coyly suggestedor at least did not denythat he may have killed someone. He told The Observer he was misquoted, though, he allowed, Ive had some interaction with some unsavory characters in my life.
Mr. Weiss does not deny that he hasor hada temper; he once shut down the set of Amongst Friends over a lost cellphone and admits to massive, screaming fights with Mira Sorvino, who starred in the film. Now such youthful antics are being immortalized on the small screen via the fictional suit-hating auteur of Queens Boulevard and Medellin.
We came up with the idea of putting a director in, and I wanted it to be Rob Weiss, said Doug Ellin, the shows creator, who went to high school with Mr. Weiss in the Five Towns section of Long Island and described him as an extremely funny, slightly crazy, good-looking nutjob.
Mr. Ellin even asked Mr. Weiss if hed play Walsh, but Mr. Weiss declined. Instead, the role went to the Vincent Gallo-esque Rhys Coiro, to whom Mr. Weiss bears little outward resemblance. Im more Johnny Drama, Mr. Weiss said, referring to Kevin Dillons physically well-maintained character. Im into grooming and metrosexual kind of ****. Im the guy with like 900 products.
In recent months, Billy Walsh has emerged as a surprise standout among Entourages ensemble of scenery-chompers, so much so that while the plan was to write him into five or six episodes this season, he will end up in nine or 10. According to Mr. Ellin, the character was becoming so dominant that he has received notes from HBO executives, warning him to be mindful about not overshadowing the shows core cast: the buddy-family quartet of Vince, Drama, Turtle and E, and agent dhorreur, Ari Gold.
Mr. Ellin stressed that his own experience as a novice director (credits include Phat Beach) also informed the Walsh character, along with reading about Directors Gone Wild in books such as Final Cut and The Devils Candy. Ive taken all the crazy stories Ive ever heard about directors, he said, sitting in his Beverly Hills office, his blue and gold LeBron James Nike sneakers (I only wear Nikes) propped up on a coffee table. The Entourage episode in which a documentary filmmaker visits the haywire set of Medellin in South America was an homage to Hearts of Darknessthe documentary chronicling Francis Ford Coppolas breakdown while making Apocalypse Now.
Nonetheless, it is Mr. Weiss who lies at the heart of Billy Walsh. And its not the first time filmic homage has been paid. He appeared as himself in Barry Levinsons movie Jimmy Hollywood and surfaces, less flatteringly, in John Piersons indie-world tell-all Spike, Mike, Slackers and ***** as, among other things, a posturing director and Vanilla Weiss. (Mr. Weiss had a falling out with Mr. Pierson in the aftermath of Amongst Friends, for which Mr. Pierson provided financial backing. I have bad feelings about that guy, he said of Mr. Pierson.)
HOLLYWOODRob Weiss, a writer and executive producer of the popular HBO series Entourage and the inspiration for its bombastic director character Billy Walsh, was sitting outside at the Bourgeois Pig, a dingy coffeehouse at the foot of Beachwood Canyon. He looked wary.
Mr. Weiss nervousness with the press dates back to his days as the badly behaved writer-director of Amongst Friends, a film about young, affluent, aspiring gangsters (Goodfellas meets Metropolitan) that was the darling of the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. The film put Mr. Weiss, then 26, in the full glare of the media spotlight (he was photographed by Annie Leibovitz and Bruce Weber), but his self-important, swaggering tough-guy persona didnt always come across well in print.
In one profile published in now-defunct Premiere magazine, Mr. Weiss, a former club promoter and dropout of the New Schools film program, coyly suggestedor at least did not denythat he may have killed someone. He told The Observer he was misquoted, though, he allowed, Ive had some interaction with some unsavory characters in my life.
Mr. Weiss does not deny that he hasor hada temper; he once shut down the set of Amongst Friends over a lost cellphone and admits to massive, screaming fights with Mira Sorvino, who starred in the film. Now such youthful antics are being immortalized on the small screen via the fictional suit-hating auteur of Queens Boulevard and Medellin.
We came up with the idea of putting a director in, and I wanted it to be Rob Weiss, said Doug Ellin, the shows creator, who went to high school with Mr. Weiss in the Five Towns section of Long Island and described him as an extremely funny, slightly crazy, good-looking nutjob.
Mr. Ellin even asked Mr. Weiss if hed play Walsh, but Mr. Weiss declined. Instead, the role went to the Vincent Gallo-esque Rhys Coiro, to whom Mr. Weiss bears little outward resemblance. Im more Johnny Drama, Mr. Weiss said, referring to Kevin Dillons physically well-maintained character. Im into grooming and metrosexual kind of ****. Im the guy with like 900 products.
In recent months, Billy Walsh has emerged as a surprise standout among Entourages ensemble of scenery-chompers, so much so that while the plan was to write him into five or six episodes this season, he will end up in nine or 10. According to Mr. Ellin, the character was becoming so dominant that he has received notes from HBO executives, warning him to be mindful about not overshadowing the shows core cast: the buddy-family quartet of Vince, Drama, Turtle and E, and agent dhorreur, Ari Gold.
Mr. Ellin stressed that his own experience as a novice director (credits include Phat Beach) also informed the Walsh character, along with reading about Directors Gone Wild in books such as Final Cut and The Devils Candy. Ive taken all the crazy stories Ive ever heard about directors, he said, sitting in his Beverly Hills office, his blue and gold LeBron James Nike sneakers (I only wear Nikes) propped up on a coffee table. The Entourage episode in which a documentary filmmaker visits the haywire set of Medellin in South America was an homage to Hearts of Darknessthe documentary chronicling Francis Ford Coppolas breakdown while making Apocalypse Now.
Nonetheless, it is Mr. Weiss who lies at the heart of Billy Walsh. And its not the first time filmic homage has been paid. He appeared as himself in Barry Levinsons movie Jimmy Hollywood and surfaces, less flatteringly, in John Piersons indie-world tell-all Spike, Mike, Slackers and ***** as, among other things, a posturing director and Vanilla Weiss. (Mr. Weiss had a falling out with Mr. Pierson in the aftermath of Amongst Friends, for which Mr. Pierson provided financial backing. I have bad feelings about that guy, he said of Mr. Pierson.)
