Lloyd has finally had it.

For the first five seasons of HBO’s Hollywood satire Entourage, the beautiful movie star at the center of the show has (mostly) been represented by Ari Gold, a blustering jackass of an agent.

And for five seasons, the primary object of Ari’s bigoted sadism has been Lloyd, his long-suffering gay assistant.

The result is a shocking black comedy tour-de-force that has won nothing but acclaim for the two actors involved: Jeremy Piven (who has won three Emmys for the role) and out actor Rex Lee, who has gone from “reoccurring” status in the first few seasons, to being a regular main character.

But now in the show’s sixth season, which debuted on Sunday, Lloyd has finally had it with Ari’s racist, homophobic rantings. He’s laid down the law: if Ari doesn’t make him a full-fledged agent (and start treating him with respect), he’s quitting. And this time, he really seems to mean it.

In response, Ari makes him a deal: if for three months Lloyd does everything he says – and we mean everything – then Ari will grant his wish.

Photo Credit: Claudette Barius/HBO

Is this just another one of Ari’s sadistic mind-f***s? Or is the relationship between Ari and Lloyd changing for good? One thing is certain: Lloyd, and the actor who plays him, will have a whole lot more screen-time this season.

Recently, we chatted with Lee about his enhanced storyline, those Jeremy-Piven-is-a-jackass-for-real rumors, and the acting challenges in avoiding Asian stereotypes — not to mention whether he really lost that fifteen pounds that Ari insisted his character lose!

AfterElton.com: So Lloyd finally has a major storyline! How did this come to be?

Rex Lee: I don't know how it came to be, exactly. I like to think I've been doing good work the last few years and I was rewarded. [laughs] My boss, Doug Ellin, sent me the first three scripts before we started shooting, so I didn't exactly know where the storyline was going, but I saw it had a good beginning.

AE: So there was never any discussion on your part where you went to the producers and said, "Look, Lloyd has been taking this abuse for all these years and he needs to stand up for himself"? It just sort of came out of left field?

RL: Yes. I was pleasantly surprised. It turns out, unbeknownst to me, other people, some of whom I know and some I don't, were sort of pleading my case for me. Way after the fact, he indicated that a lot of people talked to him and said, "What's going to happen with Lloyd? He's been Ari's assistant for a long time."

AE: Do we learn more about Lloyd's partner and their relationship?

RL: His name's Tom, and you'll see him. He works this season, but I don't know if you'll learn more about their relationship. They're still together, which is a good thing, I suppose.

AE: Are you done filming the season?

RL: I am actually done. I finished yesterday. The rest of the cast and crew will go on for another week and a half, but I, personally, am done.

AE: So what all does Ari make you do? Can you give us a hint?

RL: It's a wide range of stuff. He tells me to lose weight. He wants me to refer to him as “Mr. Gold,” and I'm supposed to call Vince “Mr. Chase.” I'm supposed to refer to everyone by their title from now on. [laughs] He wants me to remember the favorite drinks of every client. Stuff like that.

AE: Are we going to see an actual resolution to this by the end of the season, whether he gets the promotion or not? Is there a definite ending?

RL: I would say yes, there is a definite ending.

AE: Did the producers really ask you to lose fifteen pounds?

RL: No, they did not ask me to actually lose the weight. When I saw it in the script, I thought to myself that I'd like to try to do it. I was doing everything I could during the season in terms of exercising and eating better, but I don't think I succeeded in losing the weight. [laughs] Unfortunately. My doctor really would like me to lose weight, and I would as well, but for some reason, it just didn't happen during the few months we were shooting.

AE: Did the character lose the weight?

RL: No, in the same way I was hoping I'd lose weight, I'd hoped it would be obvious I was losing weight, and the character would lose weight. It turns out, because I was never asked to lose weight, I think they assumed I wouldn't do it. There are definitely references later in the season that make it clear that nobody thinks I lost any weight. [laughs]

AE: Jeremy Piven got some bad press this year with people accusing him of acting like Ari. I'm wondering what's the truth from your perspective?

RL: People accused him of acting like Ari?

Jeremy Piven, Elisabeth Moss and Raul Esparza in Speed-the-Plow

AE: The whole controversy of his pulling out of the play in New York, and the other actors and the producers accusing him of being prima donna. [Last month, an Actors Equity panel was unable to reach a verdict on the official complaint by the producers of Speed-the-Plow against Piven, and the case has now gone to arbitration and is under gag order.]

RL: [laughs] I don't even know what happened there. I do know the thing that's interesting to me, is that everything I've heard from Jeremy about it is entirely plausible. He did grow up in the theater, and respects theater. When he says he really did not want to pull out of the play, I think that rings true. I've only known him for five years now, but I will say that from when I first met him he really did have sushi and/or fish at least twice a day if not more.

I hope I'm not telling this story incorrectly, but I think a few years ago a Chinese herbalist told him he should only eat fish and take those herbs, and I think the combination of just eating fish and eating those herbs, I don't think the herbs did him any good.

I think it really did do a story on his system. That all seems possible and plausible to me. I don't know what really happened, and therefore it's hard for me to comment on it.

AE: What is your working relationship? Does the dynamic of the characters spill over into real life? How do you get along when you're not playing your characters?

RL: I think we get along really well. The trust is, I'm not sure I understand our relationship off-camera, but it's much more pleasant than the on-camera one. Jeremy is very sweet. In some ways he's very protective of me, which again, is very sweet. I think there's a huge amount of professional respect. I think he thinks I can act, and that's flattering to me. And I think he can act, and therefore we have a lot of respect for one another.

AE: It seems like the combination of the writing and the two of you together has created some sort of magic. People really respond to this relationship. I think your presence is part of what makes Jeremy look so good. Do you think was this something that was there from the start that the producers created, or did they see what was going on and wrote the characters that way? How did it develop?

RL: That's a great question. I think it's just one of those lightning-in-a-bottle situations. Everything that needed to work out, worked out. I think that when I was hired, they hoped I would be a good actor and add to the show. And when I was hired, I hoped that my job would grow into something larger than it was.

The very first episode I was in, I don't have a scene with Jeremy at all.

There's a bit of serendipity involved, because from the very first scene I shot with Jeremy was a scene where I meet him coming off an elevator and we're sort of walking and talking as we go, and this was not a conscious choice on my part, but I was sort of half-trotting, half-galloping next to him as he walked down the hall. He's slightly taller than I am, so as he walked down the hall he was walking slightly faster so I had to sort of run to keep up.

So from the very first scene, crew members would come up to me and say, "That was the funniest thing I've ever seen." So from the moment I started working with Jeremy — and it's hard for me to say this because I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'll do it anyway — from the moment we started working together, whatever magic there is was kind of apparent. It was a very lucky thing for me, and from there, it grew. Like you said, people noticed that it was working.

AE: I'm curious if playing Lloyd takes a psychological toll on you, if you have to later in the day, decompress or assert yourself. What's the impact of playing a character who's a doormat?

RL: [laughs] Well, you saw several episodes from this season [in a preview], so I'm less of a doormat than I ever was. Lloyd is asserting himself more than he ever has. I will say, in the past, it was quite as damaging as you might think. In fact, in the early seasons when I didn't know if I had job security, and Lloyd didn't know if he had job security, I was very, very polite to everybody on the set. Playing Lloyd brought out the best in me. I was very well-behaved. I like to think that the converse is true. It's not that I have to escape Lloyd, I just embrace all the good qualities that Lloyd brings out in me. The answer is I don't have to get away from Lloyd, I'm running towards him.

AE: It does seem that, had the character gone on too many more seasons like this, there almost seems to be that Asian stereotype of the deferential Asian. I think Lloyd was always more than that, there was always a defiant glint in his eye, and as the show went on, he gave as good as he got. But ultimately, Ari's such an a**hole, there's only so much you can do. It does seem like this season, it sort of throws the whole stereotype into question. As a viewer, it just made me say, "It's about time." Too much of the old way, and you start to think, "Well, are they just confirming the stereotype of the deferential Asian person?”

RL: I'm glad you saw the defiant glint that was there, because that was definitely by design. I never wanted to play into the stereotype of the subservient Asian character. I was always trying to work against that. The truth is, because I'm living in it, I was hoping that I was always fighting against that. I am glad that this season it's not just a glint of defiance here and there, it really is Lloyd asserting himself and saying that he must be given his due.

Here is a clip of Lee as Lloyd discussing his new approach to Ari.

Entourage airs Sunday nights on HBO.