By Caitlin Walsh, News Correspondent 

He expertly played a role that arguably shadowed his own life — the role of Vinny Chase, a famous actor (Chase), played by a famous actor (Grenier), loosely based on the life of another famous actor (Mark Wahlberg). His hit show “Entourage” is even rumored to be on the way to the big screen, but his latest work is lesser known. Adrian Grenier’s most recent work was, in fact, a low-budget documentary called “Teenage Paparazzo” about the paparazzi line of work and intrusion on the privacies of celebrities like himself.

This was the main topic of discussion during Grenier’s visit last week to Blackman Auditorium. Whether or not audience members were prepared for that, the expectations varied, since no one seemed to be quite sure why he was coming, and were only sure that they wanted to see him at all.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t look into what the topic of the show was, and I kind of assumed it was going to be somewhat of a comedy thing since ‘Entourage’ is a funny show,” said Kelsey Zimmerer, a sophomore journalism major. “So my friend and I were a little surprised when he was so serious.”

Fellow student Samantha Ormsby, a middler journalism major, said she felt much the same way, not even sure why, exactly, Grenier was there. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the evening with Adrian Grenier. I didn’t watch his documentary beforehand, even though that was the topic of the discussion,” she said. “I actually knew very little of him before the show, besides that he was on ‘Entourage.’ But I decided to go because I figured, why not?”

The point of the lecture itself was a little mysterious — nowhere was it explicitly advertised that his documentary was the topic of discussion. But it was plenty clear that he was avoiding talking about “Entourage,” and was, in fact, trying to inspire the audience. Some of it stuck, but other students were lost on his talk completely.

“We are in a very, very awesome time because of this technology. There’s real power in these communications,” he said excitedly. “We’ve had to learn to be alive with the internet … digital babies.”

However, any time he opened up for comments or questions, they all seemed to have the same theme to them, despite what he may have wanted. “Are you and the ‘Entourage’ guys friends in real life?” one man shouted out. Another one asked the one question Hollywood itself seems unsure of: “When is the ‘Entourage’ movie coming out?” And, of course, the most basic: “Did you like ‘Entourage?’”

It seems that Grenier will never truly shake Vinny Chase.

His points on the celebrity status and the power technology has given consumers were not completely lost on the audience, either, Zimmerer said.

“I enjoyed seeing that side of a celebrity though, someone who is really passionate about a cause and more interested in discussing that than their fame,” Zimmerer said. “I liked that he kind of just got up there and shared his thoughts, interacted with the audience and didn’t have such a formulaic planned out speech prepared – it gave a lot more insight into why he felt the need to make his documentary.”

For media enthusiasts and aspiring journalists especially, his seriousness and deeper message struck a chord with several people — Ormsby being one of them.

“As someone who is photographed without consent on a daily basis, he was clearly offended by this, and I was offended for him,” she said. “He identified some backward tendencies in our system such as this, and as a journalism major and media enthusiast, I think it is important to spread awareness so change can be initiated.”

However, the glazed looks from audience members were not unnoticed. At times, Grenier’s meaningful message and inspirational attempts were lost in untraceable tangents of thought.

“I felt like I came away with a new perspective on how much we build up celebrities to be more than they are, but at times he definitely lost his audience, myself included, who were mostly there because of his work on ‘Entourage’ or his dreamy eyes,” Zimmerer said. “A few more lighthearted stories wouldn’t have hurt.”

All in all, the turn-out was strong. The seats in Blackman were mostly filled, and whether the people were there for “Entourage” or Grenier, the majority of them stuck around for the entire show. And while people may not have an exact premiere date for the “Entourage” movie quite yet, they were lucky enough to hear Grenier’s confirmation of his friendships with the crew.

“We’re more like family,” he said, even joking that they all lived together and sent Turtle on plenty of errands.