James Marsden celebrates “Jury Duty” cast for EW's 2023 Entertainers of the Year: 'It took so much courage'
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The Emmy-nominated actor shares a tribute to his fellow cast members in Amazon Freevee's "experiment."
In the reality/scripted hybrid world of Jury Duty, the fictionalized, narcissistic version of James Marsden would relish any chance to honor himself for his first-ever Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. But in reality — and in stark contrast to his onscreen alter ego in Amazon Freevee's surprise hit show — the actor couldn't be happier to use his time in the spotlight to elevate and celebrate his fellow cast members instead. It literally took a village to create the ruse of the genre-bending comedic mockumentary about the jury duty process where the trial is fake and everyone is an improv actor playing a role except for the "hero," Ronald Gladden, a normal guy who has no idea this was not an official jury duty summons. And Marsden's exaggerated portrayal of an entitled Hollywood jerk trying to use his fame to get out of his civic duty was just the cherry on top to sell the bit even further.
To honor the entire group of talented improv/character actors as well as the show's unsuspecting hero as one of EW's 2023 Entertainers of the Year, Marsden pays tribute to his costars — without whom the show would not exist.
Jury Duty: Amazon Freevee; Marsden: Manny Carabel/Getty Images for Amazon
It made me really happy when I met Ronald [Gladden] the first day. The only way this show was going to work is if it's somebody like this — he came in with such a lively spirit and a positive attitude and a smile on his face. The show was designed to create a hero's journey for somebody, and he did that perfectly. But beyond that, he kept surprising us with how perfect he was to be a candidate for this. There were moments where the scripts were supposed to either make him feel like things were a bit weird or he maybe was going to get turned off by certain people, and instead he just put his arm around those people and embraced them and made everybody his friend.
Everyone fell in love with him through the process, and his kindness and his compassion and his spirit and his enthusiasm toward being a good person was the reason why this show works as well as it does. He's definitely the heartbeat of the show. The word "relief" comes to mind when I realized that, by the end of the three weeks, Ronald wasn't going to have a full-on meltdown; that he actually smiled and accepted our hugs and our affections that we wanted to show toward him to let him know that we weren't in any way trying to make him the butt of the joke. Instead, we were doing the opposite, which was to highlight his humanity.
[For] the other cast members, you couldn't have well-known actors or else he would recognize them. That's not to say that they aren't trained or experienced at all — every single one of them was just perfect in their roles, and the biggest thing that I was impressed with was how everyone worked together. No one came out with some crazy character trying to steal the limelight or trying to be the funniest person in the room. Everyone knew that it was a marriage of a lot of people working together to find the humor, but also to kind of build Ronald up and protect him throughout the process.
Everyone understood their duty — no pun intended — and what we were there to do. And everyone was very generous with each other with the improv. A big rule I learned from this cast about improv is you shouldn't be the one who's trying to be the funniest and the loudest. You need to complement each other with the "yes, and's" and how you create a path for other people to be funny, and we all did that for each other. Everyone understood how precarious this experience was, and that you couldn't slip up, so everyone was really intelligent.
The hardest part was watching some of these people who I was relatively unfamiliar with, because they would make me bust so easily. Ron Song who played Ken would speak so painfully slowly and would send me into hysterics talking about his gum ball machine and his sticker machines. David [Brown], who played Todd with the chair pants and all of that, just his level of conviction and commitment to that character and being able to spout off all of this gobbledygook nonsense about his inventions — none of that was written. It was really a stroke of brilliance watching him work. Alan Barinholtz, the judge, just anchors the whole thing with a gravitas and a level of expertise, and the show would've become untethered and floated away into sillyville had he not been there.
I could say that about every one of the cast members. I remember Mekki [Leeper], who played Noah, throwing up when we went to Margaritaville — he genuinely made himself sick on virgin daiquiris where he was vomiting outside the school bus. He went kind of method there to that degree of commitment, and everyone was that way. I mean, maybe Susan [Berger] didn't really get high, but I think she was really falling asleep though. That whole soaking scene was pretty ballsy, and these young players like Mekki and Edy [Modica], who played Jeannie, just went for it. I don't think I've ever been a part of something where every single cast member was so fully invested. I wouldn't put it past any of those cast members to push a comedic moment with Ronald — they all would've done anything because we really cared about getting him to the finish line and creating something special with this show.
It took so much courage. We're sticking our heads out, taking major risks, and nobody knew it was going to work. There were no egos. Everyone was equally as confused as one another — we all were just trying to figure out what the hell we were doing, because there was no real comparison for the conceit of this show to anything else. It was like, "I'll jump if you jump," and we all held hands and jumped into the deep end together. It was an experiment, and it's not lost on me how cool it is to be part of it. And I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't insulated with this amazing cast of talented people.
—As told to Sydney Bucksbaum
More EW Entertainers of the Year 2023:
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
