In Amazon Freevee’s runaway hit Jury Duty, James Marsden plays James Marsden. But he’s not the James Marsden who has earned himself a reputation as Hollywood’s jovial song-and-dance man and charm personified. No, this James Marsden is an asshole.

The series revolves around Ronald Gladden, a man who believes he is taking part in your run-of-the-mill documentary taking people behind the scenes of sitting on a jury. The catch, however, is that everything is entirely fake. The trial? Fake. The lawyers and judge? Fake. The jury of his peers, including James Marsden playing a satirical, egotistical of himself called up to do his civic duty like us regular schmoes? Fake. All that’s real is Ronald.

Everything in Ronald’s orbit has been orchestrated by a team of comedy writers and producers running proceedings like the epicentre of a NASA space station. While outlines of each episode were laid out for the players, the improvised scripts evolved in real-time as the action reacted to Ronald’s movements and decisions. The result is eight episodes of long-form improvisation that feel akin to watching train tracks getting laid as a carriage is speeding away. Miraculously, it’s pulled off to create one of the most original and, surprisingly, given the logline of the series, kind-hearted television conceits in years.

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I’ve uploaded 6 HQ photos from the W Magazine photoshoot to the gallery.

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Photoshoot Outtakes > Magazine Outtakes > Daniel Jack Lyons Photoshoot 2023 for W

“I’m going to try the Katsu burger, but I’m going to do it like the classic Hollywood actor, without the bun,” James Marsden says with a self-aware laugh from the seat across from me at Kimika, in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan. This I have come to know as classic Marsden: someone who isn’t just comfortable skewering the perception of an entitled, ego-centric actor, but who frickin’ loves to do it.

He sits in a posture that’s somehow relaxed and attentive, his eye contact so disarming that I now acutely understand why PopSugar once did a story titled “32 Times James Marsden Looked Drop-Dead, Disney-Prince Hot.” In fact, I’m ready to add a 33rd time. Marsden is commonly approached on the street with the line, “Aren’t you the guy from…?” He waits as fans shuffle through the possibilities: Cyclops in four X-Men films? Corny Collins in Hairspray? The other guy in The Notebook? They often come up short, but he doesn’t mind. There’s a playful, easy-going nature to Marsden that’s surprising given the three decades he’s spent working in an industry known for chewing up and spitting out its actors.

Take, for instance, an idea he has to start his own tequila company that’s really a satire on the self-seriousness of some of his contemporaries. “I want it to be the shittiest tequila I can find,” he explains with the same child-like glee he displayed as Prince Eric in several Enchanted films. “Plastic bottle with a piece of masking tape on it that says ‘Tequila’ and it’s $6 a liter. ‘This tastes like shit. Marsden’s Tequila. But it’ll get you fucked up.’”

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Jimmy attended the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations – “Jury Duty” event at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room in Los Angeles on May 12. I’ve uploaded 57 high quality photos from this event to the gallery.

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Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.12]SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations – “Jury Duty” Event (HQ)

I’ve uploaded some high quality photos from recent events to the gallery.

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Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.04.25]Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty” Finale Celebration (HQ)
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.01]Amazon NewFronts 2023 (HQ)
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.01]”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'” (HQ)
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.03]The IWC Chrono Challenge (HQ)

After breakout star Ronald Gladden and actor James Marsden appeared on the hit Amazon Freevee series, Jury Duty, the two reunited for ET as they revisited their time together on the documentary-style reality series. And Marsden also came with a surprise for Gladden — one that called back to one of their very first interactions about the actor’s co-star, Ben Schwartz.

On the show, Gladden thought he was participating in a documentary about what it is like to be on an American jury, only to learn at the end of his experience the entire thing was fake. Everything from the case, to his fellow jurors and even Marsden, who played a heightened version of himself who found himself stuck in the jury pool.

Very early on in the show, Gladden and Marsden got to talking about his acting career as the two waited to be interviewed as part of the jury selection process. After learning Marsden was in Sonic the Hedgehog, Gladden revealed he was a big fan of Schwartz, who voiced Sonic in the 2020 film adaptation, much to the chagrin of the 49-year-old actor.

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Jury Duty has reached a verdict and come clean to Ronald Gladden, the kind-hearted target of Amazon Freevee‘s hidden camera experiment. The unsuspecting everyday guy was shocked to discover that the case between a business owner and ex-employee was entirely fabricated, along with the rest of his jury members, the judge, the bailiff, and more.

Among the planted jury members was movie and television star James Marsden (Westworld, Dead to Me). Along the way, the actor has forced the jury to become sequestered for the case, clogged up toilets with faux feces, and leaned into the stereotypes of celebrity personalities for this grand ruse only to be faced with kindness from Ronald. So, what was it really like to serve jury duty for the Amazon Freevee series? Below, Marsden opens up about embracing a heightened persona and highlighting kindness.

You’re the reason the jury has to be sequestered, and then you don’t even participate in the sequester. How did it feel to play an antagonistic version of yourself?

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Freevee’s new series Jury Duty is gearing up for its finale on Friday, and executive producer Nicholas Hatton and star James Marsden spoke with Deadline about all that went into creating the docu-style comedy with no one finding out. An exclusive featurette for Jury Duty can be found above.

Across 8-episodes, the series chronicles the inner workings of an American jury trial through the eyes of one juror, Ronald Gladden. Gladden is unaware the entire case is fake, everyone except him is an actor, including Marsden, and everything that happens — inside the courtroom and out — is carefully planned.

Hatton— who collaborated with Sacha Baron Cohen on Borat Subsequent Movie Film and Who is America—opened up about how difficult the process was from the show’s inception to its conclusion because everything could fall apart at any point of production. The key ingredient here was secrecy.

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Jimmy attended HBO’s “White House Plumbers” New York Premiere at 92nd Street Y in New York City on April 17. I’ve uploaded 9 high quality photos from this event to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.04.17]HBO’s “White House Plumbers” New York Premiere (HQ)

James Marsden knows where the line is. You need to if you’re going to spend multiple weeks of your life playing a fictional version of yourself for a TV experiment that’s never been tried before.

The veteran actor of many genres is the most recognizable piece in the new series “Jury Duty,” an eight-episode original for Amazon Freevee with one key twist: everyone on screen throughout a run-of-the-mill workplace dispute trial is an actor, except for Ronald Gladden, an unassuming jury member who thinks he’s part of a documentary project. Throughout the process, Marsden plays along as the lone celebrity in the jury pool, dropping hints about upcoming auditions and reminiscing about past roles.

This latest Marsden role became a puffed-up version of a recognizable Hollywood actor who fancies himself man of the people while also constantly inferring that he’s above it all. (He filmed “Jury Duty” right after playing a similar A-list superhero jerk in the most recent season of “Party Down.”) Taking on the challenge, along with the dozens of actors convincingly playing all the other moving parts in the “trial,” meant keeping a fine balance between making a comedy and a believable, benign immersive experience for Gladden.

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