Everyone has got their favorite Mandy Moore project — for Nate Bargatze, it’s all about Entourage.
In his Us Weekly cover story, the comedian gushes all about his love for Moore — who plays his wife in their new family flick The Breadwinner (in theaters Friday, May 29).
“I knew her as a singer a long time ago,” Bargatze explains. “And then Entourage, so I asked her about Entourage. I think she loved doing Entourage, but I was the age of Entourage coming out, where [I was] starting comedy. I tried to back off my Entourage [love with her], but I could have kept going. I could have, but I tried to be somewhat respectful. I had to say it! I was like, “I loved Entourage,’ but then I kind of backed off.”
Moore portrayed a fictionalized version of herself on the iconic HBO comedy series, which aired from 2004 to 2011. Moore played a girlfriend of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier).
“I think everybody’s got their own [project they love her for],” Bargatze continues. “That’s the thing. She has such a career that everybody’s kind of got something that you want to talk to her about.”
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In The Breadwinner, Moore plays Katie, a stay-at-home mom of three kids whose life changes when her handy home invention hits it big on Shark Tank, causing Nate (Bargatze) to have to adjust to life at home.
“She’s looked at like America’s mom in a sense, so she was just perfect for this role,” Bargatze tells Us. “I felt very comfortable with Mandy. I put good actors around me, just in case I stunk or something! She was the first person we wanted, so we were very happy that she said yes. Mandy was very much able to just help me go through the flow.”
Elsewhere in his cover interview, Bargarze discussed his goals for The Breadwinner, the PG-rated tale he cowrote that will be his first starring role. He wants to prove there’s still a place for crowd-pleasing family entertainment that isn’t animated.
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“You want it to have that Ted Lasso effect,” he says, “where it’s a feel-good story you can go back and watch again.” Something, for example, he could watch with his wife, Laura, and their 13-year-old daughter, Harper.
That commitment to staying in his lane — and eventually dominating it — is what Bargatze has built his career around. “I don’t want to be fine at everything,” he says. “You want to try to be great at something.”
