Paradise Star James Marsden Keeps Coming Back to Life
When This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman first approached James Marsden about playing the president of the United States on a new TV series, Marsden was lukewarm. “I just didn’t see myself doing that,” the actor says. “I’ve done that once before on The Butler, and felt like I was too young.” Then Fogelman explained that Paradise’s Cal is a complicated president: a hard drinker, a man with secrets, and, most importantly, someone who “doesn’t really want to be in that position,” says Marsden. “He was sort of shoehorned into the career of politics by his overbearing father, and that immediately just sounded interesting to me.”
Marsden’s Cal is killed in the first episode of Paradise. The series follows his secret service agent (Sterling K. Brown) as he tries to figure out who murdered the president and why. The first episode also reveals a major twist: After an apocalyptic event, the remaining survivors are living in a city-sized underground bunker in Colorado, funded by a billionaire (Julianne Nicholson).
Though Cal dies right away, the show uses flashbacks to reveal what exactly happened to him—giving Marsden a lot of juicy material. The role required the sort of versatility Marsden has become known for in the projects he’s been making for decades, including HBO’s sci-fi Westworld and Netflix’s dark comedy Dead to Me. Both of those shows should have earned him Emmy nominations, but he was first recognized only last year for the bold comedy series Jury Duty. Now he’s up for Paradise as well. “I feel like the bar’s set too high,” says Marsden with a smile. “Only way to go from here is down.”
Marsden spoke to Vanity Fair about playing dead men, if he’ll appear in season two of Paradise, and what it’s been like to step back into his X-Men suit for the new Avengers movie.
Vanity Fair: You didn’t get all the scripts at the beginning of production. Did Dan Fogelman walk you through all the reveals, and how Cal died?
James Marsden: I had two questions: One, how close are we to this happening in real life? And two: I’m dead the first time you see me. What’s this going to look like? He reassured me that the whole season is told in flashback leading up to that day, and the audience is left trying to solve what’s going on and who was responsible. So he gave me some ideas of where it was going to go, but he was still deliberately vague about certain things—mainly because he just wanted it all to be a surprise to me. With TV, you don’t always know where it’s going to go, so you have to have a lot of faith in the people that you’re working with and the minds of the writers. The first episode really struck a big chord in me, and in that first episode, I was allowed to have a good time–he was drinking and singing Phil Collins songs. And then there were moments where you see him really carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
What was the answer to the first question, how close are we to this happening?
He said, “Well, closer than you might think.” He cited a few examples of billionaires that are building bunkers right now. We’re definitely inching towards it. Just me, myself as a human being walking this earth and noticing all the differences taking place in the world and geopolitics and global warming and all of these things—every day you hear about what’s next in war and global warming and all these things happening after COVID.
The story is about a billionaire who is influencing the president. That part didn’t feel so far away from reality.
The hierarchy of power is shifting. The billionaire tech has become government. I don’t want to say that statement with vehement certainty, but these are ideas that we explore. And that’s really what the show is more about: It’s not political. It’s about power dynamics.
Did you take inspiration from real-life presidents or other leaders?
Dan mentioned he’s a little bit of [John F.] Kennedy. He’s a little bit of [Bill] Clinton. He is a little bit of [Barack] Obama , and even a little George W. [Bush] here and there. But instead of taking a blueprint from an actual president, it was little nuances from each one and really having creative license to blaze our own trail.
You’ve said that you felt like this character pulled from a lot of performances throughout your career.
If I look at my career, I’ve been very fortunate to play in all these different genres. I’ve done some really ridiculous comedies, and I’ve done some very serious work. And I think with Cal, you do see this amalgamation. I mean, there’s probably no Hairspray in him. I actually made that joke to Dan and he said, “There’s moments where you’re actually singing in this.” There’s a very sort of youthful spirit to him. He likes to have fun. I also think that’s a bit of his intelligent cover. He leads with that to disarm everybody in the room, set everyone at ease
You’ve said before that you like being a character actor. But I assume there was a time where you could have gotten pigeonholed playing those sorts of charming, leading man roles.
I’m not sure. I’m not sure it was a conscious decision to voluntarily go against that casting stereotype of a good-looking guy. I did see a lot more of those roles early on that didn’t feel very satisfying to me. Exploring real character was the thing that was behind my decision-making when I chose to do certain projects. I guess I never saw myself as that leading-man guy. I know that that sounds like false modesty, but it’s true. Even from when I was young and goofing around in drama class and doing musicals in high school, I gravitated towards messed-up characters—whether it be from a comedic standpoint or dramatic. I love playing a guy who thinks he’s got it all made, and he thinks he’s the leading man, but everything else about him is clearly not. I always felt like I was more suited to supporting roles that had some interesting quirks.
Season two of Paradise has been filming.
They are filming. They’re close to being done, I think.
Are you back in some little ways?
I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say. Even though my vague answer to your question is probably the answer to your question. It’s funny—when the show came out, I had a little deja vu. Because when I did this show Dead to Me, I meant to sign on for one season, play this kind of asshole character, and then be done. The show came out, everyone loved it, and I thought, it’s too bad it’s over. And [creator Liz Feldman] was like, “maybe it doesn’t have to be. Maybe we will bring you back somehow.” And I was a twin.
And so when this show came out, and it was a huge success, I had the same kind of feeling. I told Dan, “Geez, I guess I’m really dead.” And he said, “yeah. Sadly, we can’t bring you back.” He said, “if you would’ve told me you were going to be this good, I would’ve figured something out at the end of the first season.” And then it became even bigger because of the seventh episode, and then I got a text from Dan going, “well, maybe you aren’t dead.” I don’t want to give false hope here that I’m somehow alive, but maybe we can figure something out.
Speaking of characters coming back to life, you’re currently filming Avengers: Doomsday. Is it strange to revisit Cyclops after such a long time?
I’m getting a little long in the tooth to put on the superhero costume. [Laughs.] I was excited because you’re a part of something gigantic, and I’ve spent 20 years listening to people say, “when are you coming back? When are you coming back? Are you coming back?” I’m dead. Well, maybe not. I’m going to have a tough time struggling to get into costume if they waited a couple more years. So it’s been a blast. It really has. It’s been a nice little homecoming to a role that really put me on the map. It was the first real event project that I was ever a part of, and a very beloved character, this icon from the comics. And so to step back into that role was pretty special.
Source: Vanity Fair