Jeremy Piven has called out Australian actress Melissa George for refusing to talk about her time on Home and Away.
He made the comments while appearing on 2Day FM’s Hughesy, Ed & Erin breakfast show on Thursday.
Co-host Erin Molan asked him about his breakout role as Ari Gold on Entourage.
‘Some people play these iconic roles early in their career and then they hate talking about them. Like Melissa George is an example,’ she said.
‘She is an Australian actress who was in Home and Away for years but refuses to talk about it. You clearly don’t have that attitude. You still love the character and you are happy to talk to fans about Ari, right?’
Jeremy responded: ‘Well Melissa George needs to calm down. I need to go to her home, and I need to do a little TED talk to her about gratitude.’
In 2012, Melissa was angered when The Morning Show hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies played clips of her on Home and Away, asking about her time on the show.
At the time, News Corp reported that Melissa had threatened to walk off the set if her time on Home and Away was mentioned.
‘She kept saying she’s had so many bigger roles since Home and Away that it was offensive to talk about it – she even said she’d send Seven an invoice because she inadvertently promotes it through the media,’ a source told The Daily Telegraph.
Melissa broke her silence about the incident in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald in November that year, explaining she wasn’t going to come back to Australia for a while because of the stress local media interviews caused her.
‘I don’t need credibility from my country any more, I just need them all to be quiet. If they have nothing intelligent to say, please don’t speak to me any more,’ she said.
‘I’d rather be having a croissant and a little espresso in Paris or walking my French bulldog in New York City.’
Melissa starred as Angel Parrish on Home and Away from 1993 to 1996, and made her big-screen debut in the United States in 1998 film Dark City.
She has also featured in 2001’s Mulholland Drive and 2005’s Derailed.