Tattle: Fast times for cast of 'RocknRolla'

TORONTO - Tattle's Toronto Film Festival 2008 kicked off with interviews for the

Guy Ritchie

British gangster comedy/drama, "RocknRolla," opening in Philadelphia Oct. 31. More on Mr. Ritchie closer to the film's opening, but first: cast members

Jeremy Piven, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges

and

Toby Kebbell

("Control"). In the quirky, multi-plot tale, Piven and Bridges play managers to Kebbell's druggie rock star. With old-pal chemistry on-screen, it turns out that Piven and Bridges have become buds.

"It was really kind of hard at first because when I met him he was an a--hole," Bridges joked. "No, he was really cool and we actually did hang out a lot while we were in London. . . . We're actually good friends to this day. He's invited me out to his house in Malibu and everything."

Asked how he got in shape (or out of shape) to look like an emaciated, Pete Doherty-like rocker, Kebbell said that he lost more than 40 pounds. "I smoked crack for nine months," he joked.

"You looked like you did," said Piven.

"Yeah, Method actor," Bridges quipped.

Actually, if your goal is to look like a heroin addict, Kebbell said, "I starved for seven days straight and then I ate one meal a day for nine weeks, including the seven we shot. That kind of gave me a feeling of smoking crack. It's like Ed Norton described in 'Fight Club,' with narcolepsy and insomnia – everything's a copy of a copy. Then you throw in the adrenalin of filming and trying to create something for celluloid that's going to be permanent, and you're kind of in a baffling world of your own anyway. So the drug side was covered."

In fact, one of the hardest drug scenes for Kebbell to shoot was one of the shortest.

"It's like two seconds in the film," he said. "I'm smoking a bong that's as big as my little sister. I must have gone through about 80 grams of tobacco. We did that about 10 times."

With the new season of "Entourage" starting Sunday, Piven was asked how the show changed his life.

"You graduate from a guy who's auditioning for everything and hoping that you may grab something to meeting with people and having them have a real reference for your work," he said.

"From what I understand about the way it works with the Brits is that they do their homework, they're aware of each other's work and there isn't a great deal of auditioning. And in the states it's all about auditioning."

Bridges has been successfully auditioning a lot recently (he also has "Max Payne" coming out this fall) and is really trying to develop an acting career.

"The main difference [between acting and music] would be that in the music industry I pretty much work 100 percent on my own time. In the film industry you're pretty much working on other people's time," he said.

As all roads lead to Madonna, Piven will be appearing on Broadway in David Mamet's "Speed the Plough" starting Oct. 3. Madonna was in the play's world premiere 20 years ago. Now she's married to Guy Ritchie and would occasionally show up.

"She came to the set," Piven said.

"Yeah, when we were at the crackhouse," Bridges added.

"She was very intimidating," Piven said. "She doesn't have to say anything - she's just Madonna."

"Elegance in leather is an impressive combination," Kebbell piped in.

"It was like having some kind of wild beast walk into the room," said Piven before a stunned Bridges emphasized, "Jeremy Piven said that. Just Jeremy Piven."

"We had our ['Entourage'] premiere last night," Piven said, "and then I jumped right on a plane and just got here this morning, so this feels very dreamlike.

"I won't take any credit for anything I'm saying right now." *