The bro days are over

MANILA, Philippines - Emmanuelle Chriqui talks like it’s the morning after. Her voice has always been like this — hoarse and scratchy, a voice like honey with some gravel thrown in. It tells you that this girl’s sweet but tough as nails.

Of course, she is. Emmanuelle Chriqui has been the spunky object of affection in HBO’s Entourage, a show full of man-boys, for more than a few years now. You bet she’s tough. “In my own life, I grew up with boys. I have an older brother, I’ve always been daddy’s little girl. I happen to be a woman that’s always been very comfortable in a male-dominated situation. It doesn’t make me uncomfortable and I don’t feel inferior in it,” she says.

Emmanuelle played Sloan in the series, basically what Sex and the City’s Mr. Big was to women and gay men in the ‘90s — the only constant woman in the lives of the Entourage boys. The dynamic between Sloan and Elliot (Kevin Connelly) has become a sort of lesson in modern relationships for the show’s legions of viewers battling with kidulthood.

Boys will be boys: Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon), Salvatore “Turtle” Assante (Jerry Ferrara), Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly), and the abrasively loveable Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) depict male camaraderie at its best.

“Well, the thing that made it for me such an honest relationship is that I think in life you can meet, you know, your soul mate. You can meet someone but it doesn’t always mean that it’s meant to work out. A soul mate doesn’t necessarily equal the person that you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with,” she says. “And I don’t know what the end is for Sloan and E, but I certainly know that they were trying to figure it out and there was this kind of magnetism between the two of them where they just couldn’t let go.”

It’s a character that has become a sort of barometer for the boys’ growth. After playing around and enjoying Hollywood’s perks, hers was the storyline that kept on giving — character growth in a show that was just barely dynamic.

The chemistry wasn’t so difficult to fake. “Kevin really is one of my best friends… When I came onto the show, his character had already had a few girlfriends that didn’t really work out. And when I came on, he really was like, ‘Listen. We can make this work. We can really turn this into something.’”

It’s ironic then, that the role was just supposed to be a bit part. “There were seasons where my character was strong, and then there were seasons where, you know, she was hardly in it.” Eventually, the producers knew they couldn’t just take Sloan out of the equation.

As Entourage draws to a close, Emmanuelle only has fond memories. “We’ve had such an amazing, amazing journey. You know, for so many reasons, most actors in their lifetime are not a part of such a successful show. To be a part of something that went for eight seasons is incredible and, you know, something I’m very proud of.”

Shriek-worthy: Entourage star Emmanuelle Chriqui once topped the AskMen.com Most Desirable Women of 2010 list.

“When it was over, it was really just so bittersweet. You know, because we’ve all become a family… That last night, the main cast and the producers and the creator, we went for a beautiful dinner at a famous steak house here in Beverly Hills. And it was one of these fun nights were we just reminisced and told stories and made many, many toasts.”

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Entourage’s eighth and final season premiered on HBO Signature last Nov. 9, at 10 p.m. Catch it while you can.