The Assistants
Superior Inferiors
GRUNTS. GOFERS. PEONS. Subordinates. Helpers. Whatever you call the poor souls who occupy the lowest rung on the corporate ladder, we here at EW love 'em: Rex Lee, 38, who suffers gloriously as agent Ari's personal punching bag, Lloyd, on HBO's Entourage; Jack McBrayer, 34, who shines as obliviously happy-to-be-here page Kenneth on NBC's 30 Rock; and Michael Urie, 26, who sparkles fabulously as Wilhelmina's snippy right-hand man, Marc, on ABC's Ugly Betty.
ON LOWLINESS
LEE I feel like I'd played a lot of subservient roles
anyway — I don't know if that's because I'm Asian,
or what. I hope not... [To McBrayer and Urie] I
don't know about the two of you, but my role
wasn't necessarily going to exist in the future. I
was just happy for the work.
URIE Me too. I didn't care what it was. My part in
the pilot was tiny. [But] Vanessa kept saying, ''Oh,
why don't you come do this at this point?'' If it had
been another actress, I could've just faded away, but
she included me and we've become this little team.
LEE She sounds really secure. I love that!
McBRAYER I think there's some joy and pride to be
had in a role like this, where we're not the star but
it's fun to spark up every now and then. Well, not
''spark up.'' [Laughter]
TAKING NOTES
McBRAYER I thought Don Knotts as Barney Fife
was such a good assistant to Andy Griffith's character.
And this is so random, but I always loved me some
Agnes Dipesto from Moonlighting. She was so dippy.
LEE Back in the days when I couldn't get arrested
and was trying to define who I was to people, I
would say, ''I'm sort of like the Asian David Spade
on Saturday Night Live and Just Shoot Me.'' He
was a sassy and mean assistant if he needed to be,
and he was a little full of himself, and I just thought
it was hilarious.
URIE Smithers is perfect because he's completely
in love with Mr. Burns, will throw himself under
a bus, jump in front of a bullet — anything. Marc is
definitely that to Wilhelmina. He's, like, absolutely
obsessed with her. Would do anything with her.
For her. To her. [Laughter]
PUBLIC ACCESS
URIE I'm good friends with [costar] Becki Newton
and we'll be together a lot, and people always want
us to be catty and mean to each other or to them.
Sometimes I'll just give them a look. I'll glare.
McBRAYER When I'm at Rockefeller Center, the
pages go a little bit bananas. They straighten up a little
bit and they're like, ''I know what you're going
through.'' I'm like [apologetically], ''I wish I did.''
URIE That's cute. When I was at Rockefeller doing
Conan, there was a page with me and I was
really nervous and I was like, ''You probably get
this all the time, but it's funny that you're dressed
just like Kenneth.'' And I was expecting them to be
like [annoyed expression], ''Yeah.'' But they were
like, ''I know!'' They were so excited!
McBRAYER I've really put the spotlight on the
NBC page program. [Laughter] People on the street
have been nice. I thought people were going to
come up and say, ''Your show ain't funny. And you're
stupid. And you've got no chin. And your haircut
is ugly. And you're from the South.'' But they've
been nice. A couple of times, people were like, ''Can
I hug you?''
LEE AND URIE Awwwww....
McBRAYER Then they stab you with a hypodermic
needle.
LEE I'm just honored that agents' assistants come up
to me and say, ''My family in Kansas had no idea what
I did, and now I can say, 'Watch this show; I'm Lloyd.'''
Agents come up to me too. In the beginning they
were like, ''If this Entourage thing doesn't work out,
will you come work for me?'' And I was like, ''No.''
