.png)
3 hours ago
1 ARTICLE AD
James Marsden has been the heartthrob and even the president (in Hulu’s currently airing Dan Fogelman political thriller Paradise), but Jury Duty marked the first time the Emmy nominee played an exaggerated, asshole version of himself — something he said he felt bad about, especially given unsuspecting leading man (and victim) Ronald Gladden’s lack of awareness about it.
Appearing on a new episode of Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Expert podcast today, Marsden unpacked the behind-the-scenes stakes of the “risky high-wire act” Freevee show that captivated comedy fans based on its prank-adjacent premise: One man is duped into believing he is a member of a jury in a real court case, when, in actuality, he is surrounded by increasingly bizarre characters and scenarios.
Over the course of filming for three weeks, Marsden said he and his fellow actors became “actual friends [with Gladden] during it because he was such a good guy and fun to be around. There were moments we were like, ‘Sh–, I don’t know if I can do this bit to him today ’cause he’s gonna go like, that’s an asshole thing for you to do here.'”
The 27 Dresses star said it was implied by the series’ producers that their aim was to get Gladden to act “bad,” but Marsden wasn’t willing to be “punching below the belt” given the lack of a “level playing field” for the show’s sole non-performer.
“I remember having this conversation with one of the producers who had also worked on Borat, all of Sacha [Baron Cohen]’s stuff, and he was like, ‘If you’re a really good guy, this might not be for you.’ And he didn’t say that directly at me, but it was kinda like, this is f—ing hard, how you navigate getting the comedy people actually wanna see. Yes, it’s at the expense of somebody. The nature of the show is that.”
The Westworld alum continued, “We would have real conversations in between the bits that we had to hit that day, and you sort of draw him in. You do all the awful things, which is gain someone’s trust and then take a giant sh– on it literally.”
But the brunt of the concern came on reveal day: “I was the most nervous when Ike [Barinholtz]’s father [Alan Barinholtz, who portrayed the judge] turned to him and said, ‘This is all fake.’ And for a split second, I saw [Gladden’s] eyes kinda go dark and scared, for, like, a millisecond, and I hated that. And I already knew what I was gonna do, and we all were gonna do, was storm the box where he was sitting and just let him know, ‘Yes, this is probably a lot to comprehend and to take in and process right now, but if you’re wondering if all of this was real, this was all real, and we adore you and love you.’ The last thing I wanna do is, like, ‘OK. That was fun. Cool. See you around.’”
After the fake-documentary-in-a-show wrapped, Marsden said he gave Gladden his phone number and the whole cast celebrated with a wrap party. He said the actors wanted to “reassure him that, ‘Yes, we took you along for a ride, but you are a shining star in this big time, and here’s what the show’s about. It’s about you, my friend, and everything about you that people are gonna love about you, we love about you.’”
He concluded, “And so it was a love fest after that because I really was like, ‘Is it gonna be an insult when we hold up a check for a $150 or whatever he got paid, like that lets us off the hook somehow?’ Can the two coexist? Can we find really, really funny moments and have this be a comedy and also be kind?”
