James Marsden is living the cowboy dream, thanks to a starring role in SoHo’s sci-fi drama Westworld.

He plays Teddy Flood, a mysterious wanderer at a fantasy-fuelled, futuristic theme park populated by humanoid robots and where visitors can act out their wildest dreams.

The series, described as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin, also stars Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton and Ed Harris.

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For one of GQ’s three October cover stories, we took a road trip from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara in a very handsome car (the Porsche 718 Boxster) to stay at a very handsome hotel (the San Ysidro Ranch) with a very handsome actor (James Marsden, the star of HBO’s new dystopian robot theme park drama Westworld). The purpose was twofold: to figure out why someone who should so clearly be a huge movie star isn’t just yet, and to have that dashing man show us how to wear a suit

How famous is James Marsden? He’s a movie star, sure, at least in the literal sense that he is a person who regularly stars in movies. He has all the required movie-star components: charm, talent, a face so obviously beautiful that he played a mutant who wears goggles to avoid blinding other X-Men with his piercing blue eyes. At this very moment, he looks like a movie star against the red interior of the Porsche he’s driving on the 101 Freeway. So far, though, Marsden’s gifts have not brought him full-blown movie stardom, but rather a long and lucrative career playing characters who look like movie stars but lose the girl or their lives to the movie’s actual star. Over his 22-year run—a surprisingly broad résumé of franchises (X-Men, Superman Returns), family blockbusters (Hop, Enchanted), love stories (27 Dresses, The Notebook), films about cooperative loft spaces used for murdering mistresses (The Loft), and genial self-mockery (30 Rock, Anchorman 2)—he has experienced this fate so often that he offers the insight that “if I’m in the movie and there’s another dude, we know how the movie ends.” James Marsden describes the act of Marsdening thus: “losing the girl to some other guy who’s got a little more charisma than him.”

Does this bum Marsden out? Shit no! “I should be working at the Dairy Queen,” he says, then mocks his Okie guilelessness with an “aw shucks” fist swing and a “Golly gee, I’m milquetoast!” But he’s right: How many people who grew up thrashing old cars in Oklahoma City are now behind the wheel of a Boxster 718 S, driving to the super-nice San Ysidro Ranch hotel in Santa Barbara?

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With all due respect to this week’s guest, “James Marsden Wears Gray Pants And Black High-Top Sneakers” is more about Comedy Bang! Bang! nurturing the on-screen connection between Scott Aukerman and Kid Cudi than providing a platform for that sadly neglected slice of the Hollywood community, the handsome, affable, steadily employed leading man.

Reggie Watts left some big foot grooves to fill, and Kid Cudi’s doing it ably. Following the self-conscious conflict and reconciliation of Cudi’s introduction, the show is building between them the same flexible relationship it manufactured, week by week, for Scott and Reggie: best friends, mortal enemies, whatever.

This idea is made literal in the preview of Scott and Cudi’s upcoming “pretty gritty” feature film. After a supply run in the zombie-devastated wasteland, Scott (boasting a broad Southern accent) quizzes Cudi about the foraging team’s survival rate, and each time, Cudi replies with only a silent shake of his head. “Where’s Jane?” No. “What about Doug?” No.

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The actor talks to TIME about his new movie and co-star Jack Black

You’ve never seen a dysfunctional bromance quite like the one at the heart of The D Train, now in theaters. James Marsden stars as Oliver, a struggling actor and one-time high school hot shot lured back to his 20-year reunion by a former classmate (Jack Black) who’s still desperate to be cool after all these years. When a bacchanalian weekend in L.A. and Oliver’s homecoming don’t quite go according to plan, The D Train explores a side of male friendship not often seen on the big screen. “I thought it was one of the more subversive comedies I’ve read in a while,” Marsden says.

TIME caught up with the actor to talk about his high school days, awkward fan encounters and reuniting with Jack Black.

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We chat heartbreak, dream dates and working on the saddest film of all time with the star of Nicholas Sparks’ new movie, The Best of Me

So, let’s begin by asking if there has ever been one that got away?

Not really. I look back and think about my first relationship and how devastated I was when we broke up. At the time I felt like she was the one who got away, but slowly I realised it was better we didn’t end up together.

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“The D-Train” takes bromance to a very physical level.

When it came time to shoot the film’s central sex scene between stars Jack Black and James Marsden, the team behind the bawdy comedy decided to wait until the last day of filming. That gave the scene an added level of importance.

“It seemed like we were saving it for celebration time,” said Marsden during a question and answer period Friday at the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere.

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It’s not often that Hollywood actors come to Mumbai to promote their films. Given the fact the market share of American movies backed by Hollywood studios is only 10 per cent in India, it’s indeed a rarity to spot film stars from the West. Unless they are on a secret vacation and avoiding shutterbugs at all cost! These are the some of the reasons why we were intrigued to learn that James Marsden (of the X:Men fame) and Michelle Monaghan (feted for her strong part in True Detective) were in town for the promotions of their latest film based on Nicholas Sparks’ romantic novel: The Best of Me. Making the most of the event, hitlist sat down with the two and had a freewheeling chat.

Q. The late Paul Walker was the first choice for the role you play in the film. What was your reaction when you were offered the part?
A. James Marsden (JM): I don’t remember my first reaction. It was really tragic to learn about his demise and I can’t say enough about how good he was not only as an actor but also as a person. When they finalised me, all my thoughts were directed towards making sure I do justice to the role.

Q. Michelle, what exactly do you look for when you’re offered a script?
A. Michelle Monaghan (MM): I look for material that I haven’t come across before. As an actor, you don’t want to repeat yourself. If you do that, they’ll stereotype you and you don’t want that to happen. I took up The Best of Me because I always like Nicholas Sparks’ writing. Besides, I was getting an opportunity to work with a director such as Michael Hoffman.

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We love when stars play along.

Hollywood hunk James Marsden appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen alongside Minnie Driver last night, and while answering caller questions during the after show, the blue-eyed cutie ended up being put on the spot with a little game many of us are familiar with…but with a twist.

One fan asked the Best of Me star, “James, if you were gay, who would you shag? Who would you kill? Who would you marry?” and gave Marsden his three choices: Andy Cohen, Anderson Cooper and Neil Patrick Harris (yeah, that wasn’t awkward for Andy at all).

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James Marsden dropped by the Today show to talk about his new tearjerker The Best Of Me.

The hunky 41-year-old actor also brought a picture from his high school yearbook that caused a wave of excitement too.

To James’ half-hearted dismay, the photo of his younger self appeared on screen, grinning ever so confidently and sporting the haircut so cherished back in the ’80s and so maligned now – the mullet.

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