How To Make It In America Get the inside track on HBO's latest series from the producers of Entourage

Bryan Greenberg Interviewed By Examiner

Despite HBO calling his new original series, How To Make It In America, a comedy, star Bryan Greenberg admits his new role of Ben Epstein is "a very complicated guy, and he has a lot of demons." When we first meet him, he has just broken up with a girl (Lake Bell) on whom he is still pretty hung up; he is working a dead-end job as a floor salesman at a department store; and he is in debt with a loan from a guy who just got out of jail and a bunch of skateboards he can't move because the boarder has disappeared. But the show is being billed as a half-hour comedy so he worked very closely with the writers and producers to "not make him a Bummer Ben."

And just how did Greenberg react to the uniqueness  that begins during the aftermath of such a romantic break-up? "Yeah, you know, I've gone through some break-ups in my own life that I could easily draw upon, and it wasn't that hard."

Early reviews are comparing Make It to long-time HBO favorite Entourage. After all, the guys like to party: an upcoming scene is shot completely on cameraphones from their POVs. "The crew left, and they brought a bunch of good looking girls and some dudes in, and we just got to party. I shot a bunch of stuff on my iPhone, and it was a good thing 'cause the DP was shooting on his phone, too, but [some of his] footage got erased." The show is also from the same producers, Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson, and director Julian Farino). But the major difference comes perhaps most obviously in the title, as Make It is very much about guys who are still struggling to start out.

Greenberg says: "While they try to achieve their dreams, life happens. Their friendship is tested; they run from the cops; they fall in love with girls; they party and have good times. And that's really what the show's about: the journey, not the destination."

Elaborating on the style of the show, Greenberg notes that they're "trying to achieve realism here!" In fact, the show has such a raw feel that when they were filming on New York City streets, selling leather jackets out the back of a van, they would have real people stop them and ask how much they wanted. The actors would have to point out that they were just filming a scene, and there was a camera on the corner.

Greenberg has had a pretty impressive career for still such a young actor, and he is only getting bigger with this new series as well as a new independent film with Alexis Bledel, The Good Guy. When asked the secret to his success, he admits spent some time when he was just out of college and trying to make things happen hustling from job to job, just like his on-screen counterpart Ben. "It's really tough; [sometimes] you have to take jobs that you don't want to achieve the dreams that you do want. But the thing about trying to make it-- in any career, really-- I think if you give yourself a Plan B, you're going to take it. It's so hard out there pursuing your dreams that if you give yourself an out, you're going to take it. So I never did that...I felt like that would be giving up on my dreams."

Greenberg's hard work and persistence certainly paid off, but he also has the talent to back him up!

examiner.com - Danielle Turchiano