Was this a more dangerous world to explore than Teenage Paparazzo?
You know, ironically no, I didn’t feel that way. Everybody that we spoke to, people who have been to jail, the most notorious drug dealers of our day were all really sweet people who have since become mentors for other young people who are where they were when they had no options and who were there to support them and try and give them some support and find an alternative to entering into the drug trade. But it’s so seductive because the money is so fast and easy. In a lot of these poor communities, the barrier to entry is so low so in poor communities where we’re not putting a lot of investment in education and building the economies of those communities, of course they’re going to turn to that. I actually wasn’t scared at all. I was actually inspired by all these people.
The money is fast and easy, but it’s not free. When you hear about the protection they need, carrying weapons or other bodyguards, what do you think makes that a more appealing prospect than pounding the pavement at a less lucrative, but less dangerous job?
Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the age. When you have broken communities, people are looking for camaraderie. They’re looking for brotherhood and family. A lot of these poor broken communities, it’s sort of a vicious cycle. A lot of fathers and family members are thrown in jail, and spend time behind bars so they’re growing up without the parental figures, so they’re seeking out gangs for that support. So it’s sort of this vicious cycle.
I think it has a lot to do with the economics of poor communities. You wonder why rich, privileged people turn to doing drugs. These are all questions I think we have to start asking ourselves and finding real, newer solutions to not just one size fits all, lock ‘em up and the problem will go away. But it hasn’t gone away. Its increased, so you do the math. You throw how many billions of dollars at a problem and it doesn’t go away, you’d better rethink your strategy.
That’s true of everything. We should deal with the intricate nuances of it, not broad blanket policy.
That’s called wisdom. Smart on drugs, not hard on drugs. Smart on crime, not hard on crime.
You said you are hoping for an Entourage movie. What do you actually hear about when that might go?
I’ve heard there’s a script I’m going to be receiving pretty soon, so maybe we’ll get the whole “Entourage” gang out to come see the film How to Make Money… and we’ll announce it on the red carpet.
Do you sort of know what to expect in the script or are you totally in the dark?
I expect that it’s going to be epic and very cinematic. I imagine we’re going to step it up for the big screen.
How far after the finale might it pick up, and what could Vince be dealing with?
Not a clue. I’m as excited as you.
It was a great finale, so if that were the way it all ended, would you be satisfied with that?
No, of course I want to do another, keep going.
Now with Man of Steel and a Justice League movie, it looks like a real Aquaman might be getting closer to reality. Is that kind of funny?
Oh yeah, I don’t know. I’m still waiting for the offer.
If that actually happened, if they were making an Aquaman movie, would you throw your name out there for it, even as a joke?
That’s a tough one because it’d almost be kind of too meta at a certain point. But yeah, absolutely. Maybe it’ll be a comedy. I think when Doug [Ellin] was writing the whole Aquaman storyline, that was the roadblock they kept hitting against. How do you make this serious? Aquaman is the least taken seriously of all the superheroes.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
