James Marsden likes to play the ass.
Especially when that jerk is the titled version of himself he plays in Amazon Freevee’s comedy “Jury Duty.”
The improvised docu-style series follows Ronald Gladden, a real person unaware that the increasingly chaotic jury he’s found himself on is completely wrong. Everyone around him — including Marsden’s portrayal as an out-of-touch celebrity — is an actor playing his part in the ruse.
The acclaimed series earned Marsden some of the best reviews of his career, at a time when he seems like he’s everywhere. Because he is.
Last year, he closed the book on Netflix’s “Dead to Me” with its final season and skipped the revival of Starz’s “Party Down” for a few episodes playing another spoiled — albeit fictional — movie star.
Being the consummate comic character ready and willing to make a fool of himself for the sake of material isn’t where a young Marsden thought he would be at 49.
“When you’re young you want to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor and of course, if you get the chance, show that you can do comedy too,” Marsden says. “I never thought there was one thing that was my strength, but over the years I find myself making an ass out of myself.”
Marsden has had his fair share of dramatic turns in projects like HBO’s “X-Men” and “Westworld,” the fourth and final season of which resurrected his robot persona last summer. Again, he is everywhere.
But the longer he’s been in the industry, the more honest he’s been about the roles he takes on. At the end of a long day on set, those who send it home with a smile on their face, hungry for more, have often been the quirkier, center-left comedy projects.
“I’m much more comfortable playing this than I’ve ever played the lead,” he says. “Even in high school I was still doing musicals and plays where I was the goofy guy doing impressions. I was going to school and doing bits of “Saturday Night Live” and Eddie Murphy stand-up. Comedy is something that I have always respected.
And while he idolizes improv legends like Christopher Guest and recent co-stars like Ben Schwartz who are trained in the “yes and…” style of improv, his career hasn’t been filled with opportunity. to get out of the script.
Up to “Jury Duty”.
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There were no scripts for the series, only story beats and prompts that signal scenarios from which actors can take the wheel. Marsden’s first major prompt had him ask the judge to remove him from the jury pool because he believes his star status will bring unnecessary distractions to the trial.
Unfortunately for the arrogant Marsden he plays, the show doesn’t dare reject his biggest name on day one – and he didn’t want to leave either.
“The projects I work on are doing really well, I always look back and try to find the common thread,” he says. “I feel like those are the ones where I have fun, and I have fun in ‘Jury Duty’.”
What really stood out to him early on was the opportunity to use himself as a vessel to push and push the modern concept of stardom.
“Are you telling me I can play any version of myself I want to be and ridicule the titled Hollywood, petulant brat?” he says. “It’s just too much fun to make fun of it.”
While “Jury Duty” and “Party Down” offer a similar brand of humor, the final season of “Dead to Me” remains something of a departure for Marsden.
What drew him to the dark comedy, directed by Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, was the chance to play Steve, Cardellini’s character’s horrid boyfriend in Season 1.
This time it wasn’t just the donkey. He was the bad guy.
“I like playing the confident guy who gets his reward at the end,” he laughs. “And boy does he.”
Steve ends up dead in the pool in the first season finale, putting a violent arc to his season-long arc. But when he told creator Liz Feldman he would miss working with the cast and crew and jokingly suggested she might bring him back as her character’s twin brother, she took it to heart. serious.
“Dead to Me”
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The show has always leaned into soapy storytelling, she told him, but Marsden was skeptical. He didn’t want to spoil a good thing by selfishly keeping it past its prescribed expiration date. But Feldman convinced him otherwise by asking him for a simple favor: trust him.
He did just that, making his debut in the Season 2 premiere as Steve’s twin, Ben, a funny, messy, loving balm for his brother, who still has his own flaws that show up. fit perfectly into the tragicomedy.
“I remember still being nervous, especially because there’s a lot to bring up in his story in Season 3,” he says of Ben’s role. “But Liz masterfully layers the whole character with complexity. He wasn’t just this nebulous, clumsy, insecure guy in love with the character of Christina. He was also battling real dragons with his alcoholism and the loss of his brother. It became so much more for me to dive into. That’s what you’re aiming for.
With four TV projects in a year, Marsden jokes that he may have outdone himself. But really, he’s just proud of the work because he’s confirming a suspicion he’s cautiously embracing about his career — he’s found his groove.
“I kind of feel like myself,” he says with a smile and a nod. “You never want to get stuck doing one thing, but it’s hard not to look back and see what really works. It’s fun to get into a groove. I don’t want to be an actor who is looking for longevity in this craft but who is shy or afraid to take the plunge. Some of those roles were just getting there.
Having been bitten by the improv bug, he talks to “Jury Duty” creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky about what they could work on, and he already has an idea.
“I think there could be a show around the donkey James Marsden,” he says. “He’s just him traveling the world trying to do kind things for people, but he’s just doing it for himself.”
Whether or not he takes James Marsden’s Jackass show on the road, he’s at least indebted to his alter ego for one thing. The distraction allegation may not have gotten him out of “Jury Duty” on TV, but the show’s success could prevent him from serving on a real jury again.
“I think I have it for the rest of my life,” he says, as the epiphany spins in his head. ” I did not think about it. I could actually tell a judge that I made a show about it and now everyone is going to think it’s fake. Not that I’m happy not doing my civic duty, but I think I might have a compelling case.