Jerry Ferrara Recalls Iconic L.A. Hotspots Opening Their Doors to ‘Entourage’ After Season 1

Entourage filmed at some of the most iconic Los Angeles hotspots — but some locations didn’t open themselves up to the show until season 2.

“A lot of [places] turned us down to get cameos early on because we weren't established,” Jerry Ferrara, who played Turtle, told Us Weekly exclusively while promoting his partnership with Cadillac. “A lot of the people we were reaching out to didn't quite know if we were trying to make fun of them, or if they were in on the joke.”

Entourage premiered on HBO in July 2004. After the first season, “all the doors opened up,” Ferrara recalled.

“I don't really think there was a location that said no to us. The hardest one was, probably, [when] we did an episode sitting courtside at the Lakers game,” he shared. “As much as they were excited about us coming in there, they did not want us interrupting the game or taking focus away from the game.”

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To celebrate the Entourage 20-year anniversary — which took place on Thursday, July 18 — Us drove around L.A. with Ferrara (in a Cadillac 2025 Escalade, of course) to look back at some of the locations that the show helped make a household name. Perhaps the most famous, Urth Café.

"Urth Café is a wonderful coffee shop, love it. Did not think it would become almost, like, a home base for us. This is our hangout spot,” Ferrara gushed while passing by the restaurant. “Even my buddies back in New York, when they would come visit L.A., they would say, ‘Take me to Urth Café.’ That's when we knew that what we were doing was penetrating culture a little bit.”

While shooting at Urth Café, the actor said “100 people” would stand across the street screaming their names. (Aside from Ferrara, Entourage starred Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven.)

“It was almost [like] a live audience,” Ferrara explained. “We definitely caused quite the traffic jam when we were filming at certain places. Look, L.A. is great to shoot, but it's not easy to block off the street in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood. Once we got established, a lot of places were more open to us doing that.”

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He continued, “I could not believe people thought it was interesting to stand across the street just to watch us work, but it was pretty cool, pretty humbling.”

Just like Entourage and L.A. go together, so do Ferrara and Escalades — thanks to the show. So, it was a no-brainer for the actor to celebrate the show’s major milestone while inside the SUV. At one point in his life, Ferrara even drove an Escalade and as a regular at Urth Café off camera, the actor joked he was asking to get recognized.

“Once I started making a little bit of money, I foolishly chose black. Not that there's anything wrong with the color, but that's the one we had on the show,” he told Us. “I want to clarify that the coffee there is amazing, and the black Escalade was amazing but not a great choice.”

While it’s been 20 years since the show premiered, Ferrara said he still doesn’t go back and watch Entourage. But he can’t stay away from clips on social media.

“Someone [will] post this clip, so I see some things. I really laugh at some of it. I think of what was going on behind the scenes,” Ferrara shared with Us. “To say it was an epic ride is an understatement. We really had it all.”

With Reporting by Amanda Williams