James Marsden compares the structure of “Jury Duty” to a giant Jenga tower.
“The more pieces you take out, the more precarious it becomes,” he says.
In the hybrid series, Marsden plays a heightened version of himself, reporting for jury duty. There, he’s put in the mix with a slew of characters and one non-actor who thinks he has been called to serve on a jury. As the trial progresses, there’s always the fear that Ronald Gladden, the series’ focus, will find out he has been duped.
“There were moments where you didn’t know what he’s going to say or how he’s going to react,” Marsden says. If the actors screwed up, the concept might have been exposed and the series wouldn’t have happened.
In the deliberation room, the actors could always excuse themselves to go to the bathroom if a situation became too absurd. But in the courtroom, Marsden and company were forced to sit for five or six hours, “just to make it feel real.”
The show’s creators had secondary plans – in case a problem emerged – but often, “it was like a tightrope walk the whole time.”
Method acting time
Marsden says the exercise was as close as he has gotten to being a Method actor. “I’m sending up and satirizing an entitled Hollywood celebrity and it’s such a fun character to stay in.”
On the first day – when Gladden recognized Marsden, he asked him about one of his movies, “Sonic the Hedgehog,” then offered his own opinion.
Immediately, Marsden says, he recognized the moment as great comedy. “Don’t screw this up,” he remembers telling himself. “You just kind of add to it and you’re constantly thinking how to preserve and cultivate and nurture those sorts of moments.”
For his work, Marsden was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Emmy. “I was as surprised as anyone,” he says. “The unsung heroes of this whole thing are the writers because we were brilliantly scripted.”
While the actors didn’t have specific lines, they did have plot points. “This is a character I’m slipping into. This is an acting job and you’re having to stay on without ever hearing the word, ‘Cut,’” Marsden says.
Scripted vs. improv
When he was on “30 Rock,” the actor was very aware of the lines – “it was surgical, almost. You can’t change any little line because it’s so well-crafted.” Occasionally, creator Tina Fey would give the actors an opportunity to mess around with a scene and have fun. “Sometimes you’d get these really wonderful gems.” With “Jury Duty,” “you’re just flying by the seat of your pants.”
When “Jury Duty” aired – and viewers started raving about its reality-like premise – Marsden was on Cloud 9. “I still haven’t come down from the thrill of the response to this show. You just never know what’s going to hit and it was overnight. It just exploded…and it was really cool to be part of something like that.”
Celebrating his 30th year in show business, the 50-year-old Marsden says the mockumentary's originality was encouraging, particularly since it showed there was still more to discover.
“As soon as I stepped foot in this town, I had this naively, cocky, confident attitude,” he says. “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, look at me.’ It was more like, ‘I’m going to have a blast.’ There was something to be said about people wanting to see an artist enjoy their work. My advice to my younger self is ‘Keep doing that.’ The formula to me is just align yourself with people and projects that feel organically stimulating to you…and don’t forget who you are. Don’t tie 100 percent of your self-worth to validation by other people, for your work or this industry specifically.”
"Jury Duty"
One more season?
While audiences would love to see another season of “Jury Duty,” Marsden isn’t sure how producers could pull off another surprise. Gladden, he says, was an essential element “and such a good-hearted human being.”
“It broke my heart to show him sides of me that were obviously fabricated and created for the comedy. It was a real balancing act. But what you don’t see when you watch the show are all of those moments where he and I are just having a great time talking and I’m being a nice guy and being like the genuine me. And then I would have to go from Jekyll to Hyde and switch it up. I didn’t ever want to affect him as a human being in a negative way.”
Luckily, Gladden is now in on the joke and enjoying the success “Jury Duty” is having.
"Jury Duty" airs on Amazon Freevee. It was nominated for three Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series.
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