It's difficult being one of the only ladies on a male-dominated show, but Emmanuelle Chriqui pulls it off with ease.  As Sloan on the HBO hit comedy Entourage, Chriqui has become a familiar face in Hollywood, thanks to her on-screen presence, beauty, and acting chops.  Emmanuelle was gracious enough to stop by and talk with us at BuddyTV earlier this week to discuss her early career, her time on Entourage, and what we can expect from her in the future.

Below, you can find both the written transcript of the interview, as well as the full audio mp3.

Can you talk a little bit about how you got involved in the world of acting in general, was it something you wanted to do forever? I know you guys started pretty young, right?

I did. I got started very young. I got started when I was seven years old and in fact in Canada, and the goal is to be in this forever, but we’ll see what happens.

 

Since you’ve started acting, you’ve gotten bigger and more high profile roles. Looking back from where you are now, what stands out to you as your break through moment?

You know, it’s definitely been a journey. Everything has brought me closer and closer to my goals. I think it started really with Snow Day and it just kind of kept going. I had a very slow and steady climb up the ladder and I think everything served its purpose. And now with Entourage, I’ve reached a kind of visibility that I’ve never reached before which I think will help me sort of continue my journey in stills and in acting and everything else. Every one served its purpose.

Can you tell us how you got your role as Sloan on Entourage?

Yeah I went in to audition. It was actually one of the auditions where they were seeing a lot of girls in LA and I had gone in three times. And I think that originally, the role was written as a very WASP-y, you know, the very rich, you know what I mean? Is that derogatory, I don’t know. So I went in, had a great read, and then read with Kevin my second time and we had natural chemistry and I think it was a really interesting process because it was the first time in a long time that I was cast, but they needed to work out who my parents were. Because in my second audition, they had already established that my mother was Israeli and that I was half Jewish half Catholic, and they had to get over the hump of who my dad would be, which was Malcolm McDowell. It was a very, very funny sort of thing that sort of worked out and it was so great to actually have it work out that way, because often when I have family in a show, it works against me. By the third audition it was…third one's a charm and that was that.

From your first episode, how many episodes were you contracted for? Was your character supposed to be a long time character?

No, no, no. Not at all. Originally it was three episodes and it was always a possibility that Sloan could stay around, but it was contracted three episodes and sort of, it kept going and going and going…and three years later Sloan was still there.

The nature of Entourage, makes it seems like it would be a very laid back and fun set to work on. Is that really the case?

Absolutely. It is absolutely. Not only is it relaxing and fun. It is incredibly professional and you’re really working with the best of the best, but, I’ve never had more fun on anything than I do on this show. It’s fantastic. The guys are amazing and the director and producers…the whole team, the crew, hair, the makeup, everybody is such a family it’s amazing.

Entourage is a really male dominated show. There are no female leads and there’s not a lot of female recurring characters. Is that ever hard for you to break into on set? Do you hang out with all the guys?

No, not at all. Because, everybody understands and appreciates what the show is, and I think that when you’re a part of something like this…two things: One, regardless, you’re a part of a show that’s critically acclaimed, it’s just fantastic. People are wining awards on our show and everything like that. And then, yes it’s true, the women do play a little second fiddle, like we’re not the leads of the show, but it was never intended to be that way. In the perfect world it would be wonderful because I think that there are a lot to these characters and I think that it could make for such great story lines. But you know, it’s the boys are first. Having said that, they don’t, when you’re on set, they’re not like yeah, the guys first. I mean, they are the biggest gentlemen ever, ever. I mean, yesterday I was talking to Jerry and somehow we had gotten into…at the premiere your brother wanted to take a picture with me and he was so shy to ask me, and Jerry was like, no worries, she won’t bite, you know. And we got into this conversation where he was like, he basically says to me, are you kidding me, we’re all like your big brothers, we got your back like no other. That’s what it feels like.

 

 (Interview Conducted by Oscar Dahl)