'Entourage' Star Jerry Ferrara Talks About Starring Alongside MMA Fighter Ronda Rousey [EXCLUSIVE]
What would you do to convince a girl to go out to dinner with you? What if it was powerhouse MMA fighter Ronda Rousey? Would you be willing to break a leg or a couple of ribs over it?
"Entourage" star Turtle (played by Jerry Ferrara) is up for the challenge. He shows what he's made of when he goes in the ring with Rousey in the highly-anticipated HBO TV series-turned-movie "Entourage," which hits theaters on Wednesday, June 3.
Rousey, who is half-Venezuelan, is the first and current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion and has been named the most dominant in her sport of mixed martial arts. She has finished all of her opponents by armbar in the first round and wasn't shy about doing the same to Turtle.
So what was it like to have renegade Rousey coming at you with full force?
"It was everything you thought it would be!" joked Jerry Ferrara in an exclusive interview with Latin Post in Los Angeles.
"No really, it was just really cool. It's kind of like the best part of acting. You get to play all of these different professions that you couldn't do in your regular life," he explained. "So getting into the octagon with Ronda is something that I know I would never have a shot at doing in regular life."
"I know what it's like because I got in [the ring] with (UFC Fighter) Chuck Liddell," Kevin Dillon, a.k.a. Johnny "Drama," recalled when he faced off with Liddell in the "Gotcha!" episode back in 2007.
Ferrara will have yet another shot in the ring however, but for a different reason.
He will channel the Italian-Canadian and New Jersey-bred, two-time world champion boxer Arturo "Thunder" Gatti in an untitled biopic executive produced by Mark Walhberg. (Wahlberg also executive produced "Entourage" and starred as Mickey Ward in "The Fighter" who fought Gatti in a real life match.)
Like Ferrara, Rousey has stepped out of her element, but into the Hollywood arena.
She's on an all-time high right now -- Rousey is releasing her autobiography, "My Fight / Your Fight," for which she's kicked off a major publicity tour; she landed the cover of Sports Illustrated; as well as having roles in "Furious 7" and now "Entourage."
The MMA fighter is currently scheduled to fight Bethe Correia at UFC 190 on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"It's a very humbling experience considering she is someone so dominant in that world at what she does, but you just visit her in that world," Ferrara said. "She was awesome. I couldn't think of anyone better for that part."
Check out Latin Post's exclusive interview with Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon as well as the official trailer for "Entourage," which hits theaters on Wednesday, June 3, 2015.