On May 24, 2007, the 60th Cannes Film Festival hosted the star-studded premiere of “Ocean’s 13.” But the thousands clamoring for a glimpse of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were also unknowing background players in “Entourage’s” Season 4 finale, “The Cannes Kids.”
HBO’s seminal bro comedy followed young movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his friends as they navigated the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, and, as Vince’s profile rose, so did the reach of “Entourage.” In Season 2, production went to the Sundance Film Festival, where Vince scored the lead of James Cameron’s next film, “Aquaman.” Instead of returning for the blockbuster’s sequel, Vince opts to pursue his passion project, the Pablo Escobar biopic “Medellin.” When it came time to unveil and sell “Medellin,” the “Entourage” team headed to the Croisette for a splashy premiere — or at least to steal one.
Doug Ellin (creator, writer): My brain was never realistic; I’d come up with absurd things. My group just always made it happen.
Wayne Carmona (producer): At Sundance, I turned to Doug, “This is fantastic — what are you gonna do to top it?” Without missing a beat, he said, “Cannes.” All I could do was laugh.
Ellin: Part of me thought, “Obviously we’re not doing Cannes; we’ll get a theater, make it look like Cannes.” The more we dove in, we’re like, “Let’s try to go.”
Jerry Ferrara (“Turtle”): I hadn’t left the country in my life, [so] I had to get a passport. Two nights before leaving, I’m like, I haven’t seen that passport in a minute. They sent PAs to ransack my house — it was gone. I don’t know what strings our producers pulled, but I went to the federal building hours before our flight and expedited a passport. One of the producers then held it while we traveled. [Laughs.]
Kevin Dillon (“Johnny Drama”): Just the fact that we were going to Cannes was so shocking to me. They’re gonna take us to the South of France for a TV show? Nobody did stuff like that.
Multiple scenes were cheated back in Los Angeles, but, over three days, director Mark Mylod (“Succession”) and company brought their shooting — and partying — to the busy, celebrity-filled streets of Cannes.
Rhys Coiro (“Billy Walsh”): The show was a mind-bending immersion into celebrity, glitz and glamour, that, for a young actor, was pretty heady. And Cannes was an exaggerated version.
Gary B. Goldman (first assistant director): We went a month before to scout, and there was the juxtaposition of being there when nothing was there to then seeing insane crowds, parties and beautiful people everywhere.
Carmona: Because we got permission late, we didn’t have the privilege of choosing accommodations.
Dillon: Some people were unhappy, so production was scrambling for certain cast members.
Rob Sweeney (director of photography): We had carte blanche to shoot anywhere in L.A. In France, it took more diplomacy … We always incorporated long walk-and-talks, and we had a three-page scene as they’re landing at Cannes that involved some stairs, and the Steadicam operator we hired didn’t work out.
Dillon: He fell on his ass.
Coiro: It was a weird fever dream, where you’re jet-lagged, working, and then going to events.
Adrian Grenier (“Vincent Chase”): The show was wish fulfillment, so we took it very seriously that we had to have fun.
Assaf Cohen (“Yair Marx”): They were the “Entourage” guys, and Adrian Grenier can get into anything, so I got to go to some crazy boat parties.
Grenier: We didn’t wrap in time to go home, so I pulled wardrobe aside, “I’m gonna wear my outfit to this party.” She looked at me horrified, because that’s the only one of this shirt that we have. She goes, “[Sigh] No red wine!” I show up … and red wine is the sponsor. I put on a napkin and I was able to drink [leaning forward]. We stayed out way too late, and I rolled right into work from the night before, in costume.
Ferrara: The last thing we were shooting was a bit where I’m on the phone. Everybody else was done, so we went out. It’s midnight, and I gotta be up in six hours; I couldn’t get a cab for an hour. Rhys came to me, “I walked home the other night, it’s only 35 minutes.” We began walking, straight up a mountain, and I smoked a lot of weed then, so I’m winded. He got us lost for four hours. It was the most tired I’ve ever been on a shoot.
Dillon: We went to some nightclub and Bono was there. Our work was done, we were going home the next day, and so partying with Bono was a nice way to finish.
Ferrara: Not only did I not make it home for four hours, but I didn’t get to see Bono.
The reason for the show’s trip was to film the guys walking the festival’s iconic carpet and steps, and the producers negotiated a 10-minute window, for one take, at the end of the “Ocean’s 13” premiere.
Carmona: We were given permission to get on the runway after “Ocean’s” exited. We took advantage of the production value, fans and photographers … We heisted the heist movie.
Ali Cherkaoui (first assistant director): We begged the photographers to stay and do a photo call — they gave us three minutes.
Ferrara: Photographers were like, “Which one of you is the famous guy?”
Amy Westcott (costume designer): I dressed the guys before they got in the limo, including Vince’s standard Converse low tops with his tux. Then I found out sneakers were forbidden on the carpet. We argued our case — we had established his sneaker in a previous scene — but they were vehement. I had to quickly get a dress shoe to him.
Cohen: There are no retakes on this, so I knew whatever I do is gonna be in the final shot.
Carmona: It’s holding your breath and saying, “All right, here we go.” And it either worked or it didn’t.
Cohen: Clooney, Pitt, they’re all there, and I don’t know if they were looking at us, “What the hell, they’re not part of ‘Ocean’s 13.’”
Goldman: As soon as those doors closed, I was to call action, and our cars would come forward. Damon and Pitt are about to go in, their hand is on the door, I’m like, “Here we go…” And I see them turn and run down the stairs to get another round of cheers. I was terrified that I cued the cars early. I don’t know how I kept my mouth shut for an extra second, but I did. They finally walked in, and I called action.
Carmona: The timing was so successful that the audience just kept cheering.
Goldman: We were nervous that people were gonna leave as soon as “Ocean’s” left, so we handed out pictures of Vince.
Ferrara: I remember being so nervous in that car. If I bumble that first line, we came to France for nothing. The minute I spit that out, then it just became fun.
Cohen: I brought my camera, because I felt like Yair would do that. [Director] Brett Ratner was there, and it wasn’t scripted, but I went and put my arm around him and took a selfie of us, as Yair, in the shot.
Cherkaoui: Because we missed something, we asked the guys to walk the stairs again, but, very quickly, the Cannes people got nervous, like, “You have to clear the carpet.”
After a pre-premiere bidding war results in a $75-million sale, “Medellin” debuts to a round of boos, leading shady businessman Yair Marx to renege on the deal. It was quite the change from Ellin’s original plan.
Ellin: Everybody was telling me that my movie [1998’s “Kissing a Fool”] was the funniest movie ever, and based on test screenings, not one person at Universal could have imagined the [negative] critical response. There’s lots of elements that have people not realizing what they have, and that’s an exciting thing, to be at Cannes with people who believe they have a masterpiece … and then realizing it’s not.
Ferrara: Towards the end of the series, people wanted us to get back to winning all the time, but this is an accurate take on the business. Cannes has a Vegas element: If tonight’s your lucky night, your life’s gonna change, and if not, you’re gonna crap out.
Ellin: “Medellin” was supposed to be great. I gave Mark full creativity on the trailer, and he pulled it off with no money, in a day and a half. The first time I saw the trailer, we were all so blown away that we’re like, “We have to figure out how to get into the Oscars.” The only feedback you could get then were HBO message boards, and they were torching that trailer. They thought Adrian looked ridiculous in the makeup. So I’m like, “Now it’s gotta be a bomb.”
Grenier: I still think it’s a hit.
“Entourage” ran for another four seasons, followed by a 2015 film. But all involved view “The Cannes Kids” as a peak for the show.
Sweeney: It was one of the more audacious half-hour shoots, ever.
Ferrara: It all happened in 72 hours, so I don’t know how it was pulled off.
Carmona: Between seasons, my agents sent me on interviews. Nobody wanted to hire me — they wanted the war stories: “What’s the secret? Because we don’t know how you did it.”
Goldman: It was the opportunity to be in the mecca of film festivals, and the gravity of what we were doing meant a lot.
Ferrara: I can’t wait for my kids to grow up and ask, “When’s the first time you left the country?” I get to say, “We were shooting a hit HBO show on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.”
Grenier: I wish I would’ve taken more time to just be in awe of how good we had it. I took a lot of it for granted. I was like, “Yeah, of course, it’s Vince’s lifestyle.” But I should have savored how f— lucky we were.
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