In The Good Guy Brian Greenberg literally plays the good guy. After taking a position at a financial firm on Wall Street, Daniel is forced to transition from a sweet and awkward bookworm into a curt selling powerhouse. His good guy image may not be appropriate for the financial industry, but it does catch the attention of a young woman named Beth. The problem is, she happens to be the girlfriend of Daniel’s mentor, Tommy.

It’s a good thing Greenberg has an appreciation for learning new things, because right after wrapping production on The Good Guy, he had to gear up for his brand new HBO show, How to Make It in America. Greenberg’s character isn’t very business savvy in this project either. He plays Cam, one half of an enterprise team trying to make it in the New York fashion scene.

His characters may not be at the top of their games on Wall Street or on the runway, but Greenberg is as an actor. And now, more than ever, he’s getting the chance to show us what he’s really capable of.

How’d you get involved in this project?
They approached me with the script and it was kind of an easy movie. They were shooting for five weeks in New York and I responded to the material and I really liked the producers, Belladonna, they did Transamerica and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. I had a conversation with Julio, the director, and I decided this is a different character than something I’ve played in the past and why not? Let’s go for it! It was actually one of the smoothest movies I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve been on some big budget movies and people take their time, you don’t make the day. This was like, you don’t have time to mess around and you’ve just got to go for it. There were no hiccups in shooting this movie at all.

Did you know anything about trading when you took the role?
No, I didn’t know anything and that’s another reason I wanted to do it. Julio [DePietro] is very well versed in that world from his past and so he took us down to Wall Street and brought us on the trading floor and showed us these guys and how they interact and how they work the phones and what these sales mean. I read the script and was like, ‘I don’t understand the dialogue at all.’ [Laughs] I don’t even know what they’re talking about! I went to art school. That’s one of the cool things about being an actor; you get to take on all of these different hats and learn these different professions and play the character. I was really excited to be immersed in this world for a summer.

You got to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell recently, right?
Yeah! I just rang it on Monday and the Dow plummeted the worst in three months.

know the film was made quite a long time ago. Do you think moviegoers will still be willing to accept these upscale young professionals in the middle of a recession?
Even though [the move] would [take place] pre-recession, I think the timing couldn’t be better because it kind of examines the Wall Street culture. Tommy is this guy who’s greedy and wants more and that’s kind of the reason why we’re in a recession right now, because of guys like that. I think we kind of lucked out with that shot of him at the end looking at the New York Stock Exchange through his window and that scene hits home a lot harder now than it would before the market crashed. So I actually think the opposite.

What was your experience working with a first time writer/director?
I had a great time working with Julio, I’ve got to say. He’s obviously very talented because he wrote the script, so he knew what he wanted, but he had amazing poise to know how much he doesn’t know. He didn’t try to overcompensate. He didn’t have any ego in the process. If he didn’t know something about a lens or whatever, he trusted his DP or he trusted his actor about a moment. He really trusted me with Daniel and I took some risks with it and he went with me and he guided me along that process. It was a true pleasure. I’m really really impressed with what he did with his first movie.

Did he let you adlib at all?
Definitely, that’s the biggest part of my work. I always find it difficult when directors restrain me from that process. It’s not like I’m tying to rewrite. Obviously I liked the script, that’s why I did it. I like to keep things fresh, change it up and I always do it the way it’s written, but then I do a couple my own way. That’s just how I work. It keeps me on my toes and the other actors on their toes. He was cool enough to go with that and a lot of writer/directors are so worried about their words and their idea of how the movie should be instead of addressing the moment that’s really happening and sometimes the words don’t always match up to that. That’s why I like to do improv and he was cool enough to go with it.

How was it working with the rest of the cast? It seems like a fun young group, so I bet it was a blast.
You know what? I love everybody working on this, but this is the first time I sort of removed myself from everybody while shooting. I didn’t want anyone to feel too comfortable around me or me feel too comfortable around them because my character is so socially awkward. I stayed at a totally different hotel. I kind of just removed myself and I wanted it to be weird when I was shooting. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that. It sucked because I really liked everybody! [Laughs] I wanted to hang out, but I just thought that I needed a distance for my character to work.

Did you ever get frustrated with the character and wish you could just shake some sense into him?
He was a lot of fun to play because even the wardrobe – wearing the New Balance sneakers with the woven belt tucked in, with the Sidekick on the belt – yeah, you want to shake that guy and I think it lends a lot of comedic moments in the movie because Scott Porter’s character, Tommy, he’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m a mess. Daniel’s a mess!

Do you have better game with the girls than he does?
[Laughs] I don’t know! I mean, he does alright in the movie, but I don’t know. I’m not very good at breaking the ice but once someone introduces me I’m off and running. I think, Daniel, he had to meet the perfect girl in this film for it to work.

Any plans for Valentine’s Day?
My show comes out that night on HBO so I don’t know. Maybe I’ll still go out with some of the cast in LA and hang out.

How’s everything going with How To Make It In America? Are you getting good vibes?
Yeah! It’s crazy. Everyone’s so excited about it. I’ve never been a part of a project that’s got such good buzz. It’s really exciting to be around and it’s such a cool show to work on. We just had the premiere in New York, it was a lot of fun and just doing a lot of press and getting it out there. And people seem to be really connecting to it and it’s awesome to be a part of something like that.

And it’s an HBO show too, which is pretty prestigious in itself.
Yeah, they’re excited about it as well.

You’ve been on HBO before, right?
I did a show called Unscripted about five years ago, so it’s just great to be back on a network that I really really respect and it’s kind of the only network I really watch. I just love their programming, they take risks and it feels like a family. It feels like a home so it’s nice to come back home. And it provides you time to shoot cool indies like The Good Guy and other movies and to work on music, so it’s really a great situation.

Do you have anything on The Good Guy soundtrack?
I do not believe I do. I did play some shows while I was out there and the cast and director they all came down and supported, which was really cool.

You shoot the show in New York, right?
Well, we wrapped in December. The show is definitely all about New York City, so we shot it all on location. The last four or five jobs I’ve done have been in the city. I live in LA, but it’s great to keep working in New York. The Good Guy is a totally differently looking New York than How To Make It portrays. The Good Guy is all about Wall Street and that culture, which How To Make It touches on but How To Make It also is downtown, lower east side loft parties, cool clubs, Brooklyn and that world.

What do you have coming up other than the show? Any films?
Isn’t that enough? [Laughs] Isn’t this enough for one week? Actually after this I’m chilling. I don’t know. I’m going to hopefully get back in the studio and work on my second record and I’m looking at film projects and we’ll see what happens with a possible second season for How To Make It.

So when are you going to be in the midst of a superhero movie rumor?
Bryan Greenberg in a cape? Who knows? Anything’s possible.

You’re always the nice guy. Try going for a villain part.
I’d love to! That would be fun. It seems like that’s the only movie they’re making now. I’m excited that The Good Guy is getting distribution because indie movies they’re not – people ran out of money and they’re not making these movies anymore. It’s all superhero movies or real obvious tent pole studio films. I really hope people go out and support the indie filmmakers because it’s a dying breed and there’s a lot of cool voices out there that need to be heard.
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I will have screencaps up hopefully tomorrow but for now you can watch Bryan, Victo and Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ host The Sucker Free Countdown on MTV2.

HBO’s new series “How to Make It in America” comes from the same producing team as “Entourage” — but the thing you should know about it before anything else is that, aside from exploring the bond between guys and airing on HBO, it’s not a whole lot like “Entourage.”

Whereas Vinny Chase and his boys made it to the top and never really fell that far from it, “How to Make It” is about what it’s like to be on the bottom of the heap and looking for a way up. “It’s a street-level show,” is how creator Ian Edelman puts it. “It’s the beginning of a journey.”

The show stars Bryan Greenberg (“October Road”) and Victor Rasuk (“Stop-Loss,” “Raising Victor Vargas”) as Ben and Cam, long-time friends and would-be fashion moguls who have big ideas but less ability to execute them. The show follows their struggles to start a denim line — how they luck into the fabric is part of the story in Sunday’s (Feb. 14) premiere — and make their names in the business. Luis Guzman, Lake Bell, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi also star.

Here are four other things you should know going into the show.

Comedy with a side of drama. “How to Make It” has plenty of funny moments, but as with shows like “Hung,” “Nurse Jackie” and “United States of Tara,” it mixes in more dramatic material too (“HTMI” isn’t on those shows’ level yet, but its tone is similar). “It’s [about] a period in life where there’s a lot of hard work to be done and everything is — you’re figuring it out, there’s an existential window, and there are pressures, so some things hit harder than others,” Edelman says. “… It’s just kind of a realism and authenticity of this moment that we’re going for.”

Ensemble piece. Greenberg and Rasuk are definitely the center of the show, but the rest of the cast — particularly Guzman, who plays Cam’s ex-con uncle, and Bell, as Ben’s ex-girlfriend — have their own stories.

“Lake Bell has a much more significant role than what you see in the pilot,” Greenberg says. “The audience can follow what it’s like to be a single girl in her 20s trying to make it as an interior designer, and also dealing with the aftermath of a breakup and running into your ex at different functions, dating a new guy, and just questioning her career choice and life in the city. Eddie Kaye Thomas [as a high-school buddy of Ben's who's now a Wall Street big shot] is really funny. And Luis … we end up borrowing money from him, and there are consequences that come from borrowing money from him.”

Chemistry experiment. Despite that, though, the show wouldn’t work if Greenberg and Rasuk didn’t spark together, and they really do. Rasuk has infectious energy, and Cam serves as a great counterpoint to Greenberg’s more serious Ben. “When Bryan and Victor first met each other, we couldn’t have been happier,” Edelman says. “It was like instant chemistry. Victor is from the Lower East Side” — much of the show is set in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn — “and Bryan has spent so much time living there. … They were like instant friends — you could feel their back story. It was like a chemical thing; we couldn’t plan for it. We were fantastically lucky.”

Will they make it? Not right away (“It’s not called ‘Made It in America,’” Greenberg jokes). Edelman says the show is about “baby steps,” the little victories and setbacks on the road to achieving a dream. “We don’t want to slow the storytelling down too much [but we want to] find the joys along the way,” he adds. “But it’s a nonstop hustle and a nonstop grind. You take a step forward, and it’s three steps back. They’re kind of figuring it out.”
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“How to Make It in America” premieres at 10 p.m. ET Sunday on HBO.

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I recently sat down with the two stars of the new HBO series, How to Make it in America, for the easiest interview I’ve ever done, and the most fun. They’re super nice guys, incredibly energetic, and absolutely into what they do. I’m sure most actors are into what they do, but it’s actually rare to see this kind of enthusiasm for the gig.

Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk have a lot to say. And not just about their new HBO series, How to Make It. But about basketball, the 70s, Los Angeles, Twilight, growing up in the projects, acting, women, Hebrew school, music, you name it. Before How to Make It, Greenberg and Rasuk didn’t know each other. But they knew of each other. They’d played in the same basketball league out in LA. And Greenberg had seen Five Feet High and Rising, the Cannes and Sundance award-winning short that lead to Raising Victor Vargas and insta-cred for Rasuk. But now they’re friends. And it’s not bullshit, some angle cooked up by the marketing folks to get butts in seats. That chemistry they have in the show? It’s real. They enter the room animated, mid-conversation, tossing details into each other’s stories. They love stories, and as two young actors who’ve been in the business for years, they’ve got a lot of them to tell.

Like how Rasuk landed that short film. He was a 13 year old kid from the pj’s (projects he later brought Greenberg into, but that’s another story). Some NYU students were shooting in Tompkins Square Park. Rasuk was hanging around, but he was a New York kid. New York kids don’t stand back. “I was like, ‘Hey, can I be in your movie?’” That wasn’t Five Feet, but the next one was. Two years later there was Vargas and the Spirit Award nomination. Then Lords of Dogtown, Stop-Loss, hanging with Benicio on Che. But that’s another story too.

And like the time George Clooney gave Greenberg a talking-to. It was on Unscripted, and Greenberg had just nailed his big scene with Frank Langella. “You know, ‘You don’t know me! You’re my acting teacher, not my therapist!’ And at the end of the day, I was like, ‘I fucking killed that!’”

“No you didn’t, son!” Rasuk says. Their hands smack in the air.

“In my mind,” Greenberg says. “And the next day George brought me into his office and was like, ‘Come here.’ I was like, ‘What’s up?’” Greenberg shows how he sauntered up to Clooney, confident, cocky. Rasuk laughs. He’s loving this story. “And George said, ‘I don’t ever want to see you act. The minute I see you act, it’s over.’” Rusak sits back, eyes wide. Greenberg says, “I was like, ‘Noted. Got it.’ The best acting advice I ever got.”

“That’s kinda gangster,” says Rasuk.

Despite its name, How to Make It is not a primer for our times. Though it’s the latest show to call NYC home, it’s setting is the New New York, eight years after 9-11 but with fresh Wall Street wounds and a creeping feeling that the famous dream we all cling to, along with our babies and guns, has become a nightmare. Greenberg and Rasuk play Ben and Cam, two friends struggling to make something happen, on their own terms, in the outer boroughs. Ben’s a struggling artist and designer who works at Barney’s by day, and Cam’s an exuberant hustler who’ll chase a dream all the way to the Bronx if he has to, even on his bike. “My character,” Rasuk says, “in a lot of ways is a composite of guys I grew up with or came across in New York City.”

And in a lot of ways, Greenberg’s character symbolizes Manhattan. “Ben can go into the projects [before shooting, Rasuk took Greenberg to the LES pj's where he grew up], he can go to the Wall Street guys, he can be in the art scene, he can blend into the nightlife with the skateboarders and promoters, he can go to the upper east side with his Jewish folks. He embodies all of it. And he brings it all together.” The actor was raised in the Midwest and went to NYU but lives now, like Rasuk, where the sun never stops shining. “I don’t love LA,” he says, “but I love working.” Even though Rasuk hasn’t looked back since Victor Vargas, he feels the same way. It’s about the work. When Greenberg says, “It’s just being in the moment and loving what you do,” Rasuk says, “Just like How to Make It.”

“Yeah, like How to Make It,” Greenberg echoes. “We’re trying to capture the vibe of people on the grind, not being satisfied with their place in life, doing whatever it takes to get ahead. The beauty is we don’t really know what we’re doing. We just have a dream.”

A dream that finds them, in the pilot, borrowing three grand off a drug dealer to buy a roll of primo Japanese denim off the back of a truck. The jeans they’ll make will sell for hundreds a pop. But, “We might launch into something else too,” Rasuk says, almost in character, loving the mystery of what’s to come with the first season of a show that everybody’s excited about. They grin, smack hands, and keep talking.

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Entourage written backward doesn’t quite spell garmento, but that is the gist of “How to Make It in America,” a new series on HBO beginning Sunday that comes from the producers of “Entourage.” Here they have reversed the premise to look at guys from the neighborhood who haven’t left the neighborhood.
Instead of exploiting instant fame and wealth in Hollywood, these New York slackers are dodging creditors and cops, hoping for a break in the garment business, or at least enough cash to pay the rent.

Failure isn’t as much fun as success, probably because there is so much more of it. Dreams aren’t the same as drive, and self-pity is less attractive than hard work. Accordingly, it takes a while to care about Ben (Bryan Greenberg), a mopey Fashion Institute of Technology dropout who folds jeans at Barneys and moons over his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Lake Bell). His best friend, Cam (Victor Rasuk), has more energy, but he wastes it on lame projects like selling designer skateboards and bootleg leather goods.

The two pals have some tenuous fashion and art-scene connections, mostly rich girls with downtown lofts. They have ambition, sort of, but first they have to repay a loan from Cam’s cousin, Rene (Luis Guzman), an ex-con who views physical harm as collateral.

Appealingly, the heroes inhabit a more multicultural milieu than the one on “Entourage.” But the grittier, graffiti-and-bodega backdrop is not necessarily as winning as palm trees and swimming pools. “Entourage” was a Cinderella story for guys that provided a new and amusingly wry look at show business — and the culture of young stars and their posses — through the eyes of losers from Queens who luck out.

Twenty-somethings trying to make it, or depressed about not making it, is a more familiar and well-explored subject, from “Reality Bites” to “Clerks.” Even “Bored to Death,” a recent HBO series about Brooklyn slackers, got bored with ennui and put its dope-smoking hero to work as a private detective.

“How to Make It in America” picks up steam as its heroes pick themselves up by their sneaker laces and try to start their own business, in this case a line of retro 1970s designer jeans. Theirs is not a Horatio Alger or even a Ralph Lifshitz to Ralph Lauren business model; this is a recession-era, empire-in-decline morality tale. They can turn a quick deal — Cam coaxes Ben into helping him move a shipment of leather coats bought off the back of a truck. But persistent effort isn’t worth the trouble.

Attitude and connections are the best way to make it in America, a point slyly reinforced with visual cues, like a party in a cool Lower East Side apartment on Hester Street, a location that was once a symbol of the immigrant work ethic. At a restaurant a friend introduces Ben and Cam to the designer John Varvatos, and over drinks they wheedle a consultation. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein were Bronx kids who hustled to apprentice to designers and manufacturers; Ben and Cam hustle to avoid being apprentices.

“Everybody has ideas, but nobody wants to put in the work,” the rich father of a friend tells Cam after Cam tries to sell him on a new venture that he describes as “Cold Stone Creamery, but for doughnuts.”

The series has great music (the theme song is Aloe Blacc’s “I Need a Dollar”) and there are some snarky asides about hipster New York. A female friend tries to get Ben interested in a new girl, Jane, saying, “Oh, she’s cute, she has short hair and she writes for Nylon, and she will definitely sleep with you.”

The series takes off when secondary characters fill in the blank spots. Mr. Guzman is poker-faced and quite funny as a small-time mobster in a Dominican neighborhood who buys into a franchise for an energy drink, Rasta Monsta. Ben finds a potential backer when he runs into a high school classmate, David (Eddie Kaye Thomas), a nerd who has reaped a hedge-fund fortune. David, who looks a little like the goofy heir played by Tommy Noonan in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” is worth millions, but he can’t get past the bouncer at a hot downtown club, Avenue. Ben, who plays basketball with the bouncer, can, and that is a quid pro quo he can take to the bank.

Rachel dumped Ben, but she still isn’t completely over him, even though she has a handsome new boyfriend, Darren (Jason Pendergraft), a hotelier, and a promising job with an interior designer. Her boss, Edie (Martha Plimpton), perks Rachel up when Rachel returns morose and insecure from a lunch with a college friend who is combating the spread of AIDS in Africa.

“Any ambitious do-gooder with airfare can feel like they are making a difference in Africa,” Edie says airily, waving a joint. “It’s Africa.” She assures her protégée that the true heroes are the ones helping hard-working New Yorkers make the most out of tiny apartments. “I still want you to go to Africa and help out,” she says. “Just do it on your Christmas break.”

When Ben shakes his hangdog complacency and gives the jeans project his full attention, “How to Make It in America” finds its stride — not the “Entourage” strut but a garment-district shuffle.

Any movement is better than idleness. Hard work may not pay off anymore in real life, but it is still the stuff of fiction.

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Bryan Greenberg may play a cool character in HBO’s new series “How To Make It In America,” but for the indie film “The Good Guy,” he had to take a different tack.

“I just tried to play the most awkward version of myself,” he told AccessHollywood.com of his role as Wall Street newcomer Daniel in the film, due on February 19. “I think Daniel just wasn’t blessed with the social talents.”

In one scene, he approaches two women in a bar – only to wind up asking for a napkin instead of their numbers, a scene that he admitted was more true to life.

“I’m pretty good with talking to girls if I have an introduction, but I’m the worst at trying to go pick up a girl,” the former “October Road” and “One Tree Hill” star said. “I’m really bad at breaking the ice. It’s awkward! It’s this weird position that the male species is forced into from society. Girls have it [hard] in a lot of ways… they have to bear children… but guys usually have the responsibility of breaking the ice.”

To step into the role, Bryan said he went a little method.

“When I was shooting the film, I didn’t choose to stay downtown with the rest of the cast, I stayed uptown. I just didn’t want anyone to stay too comfortable around me, or vice versa,” he said. “It was new for me. I’m not a method actor [but] I [do] try to live in the character’s world a little bit.”

That character, he added, is “a very extreme contrast from the character I’m playing in ‘How To Make It In America’” – his new HBO comedy, where he plays Ben Epstein, a man trying to make it in New York’s fashion scene.

“It’s so good to be back” with HBO, Bryan said. “I did ‘Unscripted’ a couple years ago [with them]. They let you take risks.”

With all of his new work, fans of his “One Tree Hill” days may be wondering when the sometime-musician will be showing off his singer-songwriter skills once more.

“I’ve got a bunch of new songs,” Bryan said. “[But] I broke my wrist.”

When his cast comes off, he said, he’ll be heading for the studio – and looking forward to debuting his mellow musical side.

“I’m definitely a singer-songwriter,” he said. “I’m somewhere in the vein between Elliott Smith and Jack Johnson.”

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Bryan recently shared his top 5 spots in New York City with Complex Magazine Check out this link so you can see the photos too

On the new HBO series ‘How to Make it in America,’ Victor Rasuk and Bryan Greenberg play Cam and Ben, two best buds living the struggler’s life in and around New York City. Ben’s an artist. By day he hocks designer denim at Barneys; by night he paints skateboards, canvasses, or whatever else he can get his hands on. He’s as familiar with the downtown late night art scene as he is with the Upper East Side Jewish community his parents belong to. He’s the straight man to Cam’s exuberant hustler-from-the-hood. Cam’s the kind of New York kid who’s always on the lookout for the next score and is willing to ride his bike all the way to the Bronx in order to find it.

‘How to Make it’ was created by Ian Edelman and came to HBO via Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levison’s Leverage production company, which is responsible for ‘Entourage’ and ‘In Treatment.’

AOL TV recently caught up with Greenberg and Rasuk, two of the most animated guys you’ll ever meet, to get their advice on B-Ball, Brooklyn and the American Dream.

How did this show come together?
Greenberg: I was coming off ‘October Road’ for two years on ABC, and I did some movies, and I wasn’t really itching to jump back into television, just cause you never really know what you’re getting into and it can be a real grind, you know? I was kind of in a place where I wanted to jump from project to project. I knew Ian. I didn’t even know he was a writer. I played basketball with Ian in L.A.

He was a production assistant back in 2001.
Rasuk: He was a P.A.?
Greenberg: Yeah. When I played ball with him he said, “I loved ‘Prime,’ I thought you were great in it. We’ve got a lot of similarities in our look and everything.” [Rasuk laughs] That’s funny, you know. And we had the same game, we would run to the same spot on the court when we were playing ball. We were on the same team. We won like six games undefeated.
Rasuk: Which league was it, not the E league, right?
Greenberg: No we just played at this, like, church. So we had chemistry off the bat, just through ball. We didn’t lose. And then I was reading the trades, and I saw Ian Edelman sold a show to HBO. And I was like, “What is this?” So I said let me read this thing. And apparently, he was thinking of me and Vic the whole time. Well, that’s what he says [they both laugh].

Did you guys know each other before?
Greenberg: I know his work.
Rasuk: Likewise, but we never knew each other. And you know we crossed paths, we played in the same ball league in L.A., but we never knew each other.
Greenberg: So I met with Julian Farino, the director,
Rasuk: This before they started casting?
Greenberg: This was before they started casting.
Rasuk: Ah, I didn’t know that.
Greenberg: Yeah, and [executive producers] Rob Weiss and Steve Levinson, and Ian, and was just like, “What’s your plan? Where is this going?” You know, what is this show? It’s cool, but like, where do you see it going? Cause it’s kinda hard to get that from 30 pages. They broke it down and I got their vibe and I was like “All right.” Then they did a chemistry read. Victor and I, that’s where we met. And we just hit it off, like [they slap hands].
Rasuk: Off the bat.
Greenberg: Off the bat, yeah, we were just like, yes, and I think everybody kind of knew it. We’ve been hanging out ever since.
Rasuk: Like throughout the year we been waiting for the pilot, ’cause we’re wrapping up the show now. It’s taken a year to get from the pilot to the show, and we’ve been hanging out this past year. But they did a whole casting thing, you know, L.A., New York, maybe even some other cities I don’t know about.

What, to look for your character?
Rasuk: For both of us.
Greenberg: For both of us.
Rasuk: I guess that’s totally the protocol, correct me if I’m wrong, but they gotta see everybody. That’s just how the business is.
Greenberg: And HBO was pretty hands on with this one. This is like, their baby. There’s a lot of people who care a lot about this show. We’re on a great network. It’s basically like doing a long movie every year. They’re not afraid to take risks.
Rasuk: They take a lot of risks.
Greenberg: [They laugh]. And to be in New York, a great cast, and the directors we’re getting are top notch. These guys are filmmakers. Joshua Marston, who did ‘Maria Full of Grace.’ And Jonathan Levine.
Rasuk: Jonathan Levine.
Greenberg: The guy that did ‘The Wackness.’ We bring in like, voices, guys who have a voice, it’s not just you know, a TV gig.
Raskuk: It’s HBO. [They laugh]. They do a really good job on getting the right people to do the job.

So where is the show going?
Rasuk: You wanna take this?
Greenberg: I’ll take this. I mean, this show is not a plot-driven type show. It’s definitely a lifestyle show about people in New York City who work really hard, hustling, trying to make it on an unconventional path and then at night they play really hard as well. You’ll see scenes of us at a really dope downtown loft party ’til like 4 in the morning, and then we’re gonna be at a meeting at 10 in the morning. And that’s just the life we’re living, that whole generation. The show’s really more about a tone and, just, the world and the characters. We’re trying to capture that vibe of people on the grind, you know, not being satisfied with their place in life and doing whatever it takes to get ahead. And that’s hustling, you know, we’re borrowing money from drug dealers, we’re borrowing money from stock brokers. Basically, I guess, plot-wise you’re gonna see us try to build this company together. We don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.

The company about the high-end jeans? In the pilot your characters borrow three grand to buy a roll of premo Japanese denim off the back of a truck.
Greenberg: Yeah, jeans, and, we might launch into uh … [grins]
Rasuk: Yeah, we might launch into something else, cause the jeans might not work out. You know, you don’t know.

There might be setbacks?
Greenberg: Yeah.
Rasuk: Yeah, the setbacks that happen in everyday life.
Greenberg: The beauty is we don’t really know what we’re doing, we just have a dream, and we’re just figuring it out as we go along, and the audience isn’t going to know what the hell …
Rasuk: Yeah.
Greenberg: What the hell this world is about either. We’re familiar with it, we’re in it, you know? But we don’t know what we’re doing. We just start going for it, and then we fail, and then we succeed, and it’s basically just like swinging from one vine to the next. We don’t know, we just leave it all behind. It’s like the time in our lives when we just go for it.
Rasuk: Yeah.
Greenberg: You know.
Rasuk: Yeah.

‘How to Make It’ is the latest show to call New York home. Where have you guys been shooting?
Rasuk: Everywhere in New York.
Greenberg: Yeah.
Rasuk: I was born and raised here and there’s locations I’ve never been to. They’ve chosen awesome locations, real locations. They’re all throughout the five boroughs.
Greenberg: We do three moves a day on the show, it’s crazy. We’re only on the stage one day a week. It’s pretty much all locations.
Rasuk: Yeah.
Greenberg: Primarily downtown, LES (Lower East Side) …
Rasuk: East Village.
Greenberg: Williamsburg, and Greenpoint.
Rasuk: Yeah.
Greenberg: But I mean, we’re shooting in the Bronx, we’re shooting in Staten Island, I mean, we’re fucking all over the place.
Rasuk: Yeah.
Greenberg: In Barneys.
Rasuk: Yeah man. Where Ben works.
Greenberg: Yeah, that’s his grind, you know. I mean, that kinda represents uh …

The boss riding your ass.
Greenberg: Yeah, Ben’s just miserable working at Barneys.

It must be interesting for you especially, Victor, because you grew up in New York.
Rasuk: Yeah, I took him back to where I grew up. I grew up in the projects on the Lower East Side, the Jacob Riis projects. And I took him back when we shot the pilot. I was like, you should just get a taste of this. Bryan was very familiar with that neighborhood. Can I tell them you went to NYU?
Greenberg: Yeah.
Rasuk: And he actually like, lived down the block from where I grew up. So it’s not like he wasn’t familiar with it, but I was like, why don’t you come inside.
Greenberg: Yeah, I’d never been inside.
Rasuk: And go to the apartments, you know what I mean? I remember when you came, and you was just like [his eyes go wide]. ‘Cause it’s so small. But yeah man, growing up on the Lower East Side, I don’t wanna speak for Bryan, but doing this show and shooting here, the vibe of ‘How to Make it in America,’ a lot of my character and even Bryan’s character, I’ve seen growing up in the neighborhood. I feel like Cam in a lot of ways is sort of a composite of guys I either grew up with or guys I came across in New York.
Greenberg: I’ve always been drawn to New York. And for some reason all the actors I respect were coming out of New York, and all the musicians I was listening to, it was all coming from New York. And I knew I wanted to do the acting thing, so it was either L.A. or New York, and there’s just something about this city that makes me feel like myself. Even though I’m not from here, I feel like I’m a New Yorker, I really do. I feel like this show really lays it down for New York too. My character, Ben Epstein, is a guy that I think sorta symbolizes Manhattan, in a weird way. He’s basically like …
Rasuk: A chameleon?
Greenberg: Yeah. He brings it all together. I’ve lived in a lot of places, but this is the only place I’ve loved. I don’t love L.A., I mean it’s all right. But I love working.

And now working has brought you back to New York.
Greenberg: Yeah! That’s the thing.
Rasuk: It’s crazy, yo.
Greenberg: Yeah it is.

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Bryan Greenberg, star of HBO’s How to Make It in America, will be making it big soon if the “east coast Entourage” takes off like we expect it to (it premieres this Sunday at 10 p.m. e.t.). Greenberg, 31, plays Ben Epstein, an NYC hustler trying to make it in the cutthroat fashion industry with help from his boys (played by Victor Rasuk and Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi). You might recognize B-Gizzle, who grew up in St. Louis, from HBO’s Unscripted, films like The Perfect Score and Nobel Son, or his album Waiting for Now (or, if you’re a teenage girl, One Tree Hill), but How To… has him poised to blow the fuck up. Before he becomes too big for this earth, Complex caught up with the actor/singer-songwriter to get his “Mantras,” a.k.a. the rules he lives by. Keep reading for his stance on filming sex scenes, having sex with married fans, and more things that don’t necessarily relate to sex…

FOLLOW SIGNS.
Bryan says: When I graduated [from NYU], I spent a year in New York bar-tending, catering, waiting tables, hustling, doing whatever I could and getting little [acting] jobs. There wasn’t enough work to go around. I was living with my college girlfriend in this small-ass two-bedroom in the East Village and one night brown water started dripping from our ceiling—our upstairs neighbor’s toilet was overflowing and shit was falling from the ceiling. I believe in signs. I decided then to try L.A. I visited for the summer and got two jobs the first week.

THE BOYFRIEND CAN’T WATCH.
Bryan says: The keys to a good sex scene are get drunk, make sure you have mints, and try to think about Large Marge. No. Honestly, ask for a closed set. That’s the first thing. Try to get as many people off the stage as you can, because those are the days when everyone’s hanging around. I’ve done sex scenes or kissing scenes where boyfriends have been on set. It’s already awkward; I don’t need to see the boyfriend. That’s not cool.

RIDE THE ROLLER COASTER.
Bryan says: The first time I met Meryl Streep [while filming Prime], she was like, “So, you nervous, Bryan?” And I’m like, “Nah, nah, I’m good. I got this! I’m ready to do it! …Why? Are you nervous?” She’s like, “I’m scared shitless.” Wow. It was then that I realized it never ends, there’s no goal to be reached, no benchmark. We chose to be actors, to live this life, its ups and downs. Right now I’m on an up because I’m working on a great job, but it might not last forever. But right now I’m happy.

BEWARE OF TEENAGE GIRLS.
Bryan says: I was on the subway couple months ago by myself and a group of high school chicks noticed me. That demographic is fanatical. It became a whole scene and I had to jump out. That usually doesn’t happen. I just have to wear a hat or not hang around the mall too much. I don’t have it as bad as a lot of people; I’m sure the Twilight guy [Robert Pattinson] has it worse.

DON’T BE A JERK.
Bryan says: I get this shit all the time: “You’re so nice for an actor.” I’m like, Wow, all I gotta do is look people in the eye and shake their hand and I’m a nice guy. You don’t have to do much. There are so many assholes lowering the bar that people naturally expect you to be a dick.

DON’T HAVE SEX WITH MARRIED FANS.
Bryan says: The weird [comments online] are when someone says, “My husband says I could sleep with you,” like it’s a rule. First, it’s weird that I’ve been talked about in bedrooms. That’s just uncomfortable on a lot of levels, but the fact that he’ll let you do it is even weirder, and the fact that you think I’m actually going to do it is beyond. But I guess I’ll take it as a compliment.

EARN IT.
Bryan says: In the past I’ve thought maybe I can just headline a tour. No, you gotta open for guys. Just because you’re an actor, that doesn’t mean you’re gonna put people in seats as a musician. I’ve done shows where it’s not crowded. You have to earn it in each arena. That’s why I go on tour, meet fans, and talk to them on Twitter and Facebook, build from the ground up. I gotta get out there with a guitar and a mic and earn it.

(Source)