Can “This Is Us” collaborators Dan Fogelman and Sterling K. Brown reunite without making viewers cry?

It’s possible in the new TV world of Fogelman’s creation, Hulu’s “Paradise,” which stars Brown as CIA agent Xavier Collins, who is suspected of killing the president, Cal Bradford, played by James Marsden.

But did he? Or is someone else responsible? And is that the only question we should be focused on?

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Over his 30-year career so far, Emmy-nominated actor James Marsden has consistently grabbed our full attention with his many memorable on-screen performances. From playing Cyclops in the X-Men films and “the other man” Lon Hammond in The Notebook to Corny Collins in Hairspray, Prince Edward in the Enchanted films and Teddy Flood on the Westworld series, Marsden, 51, has built quite the impressive career for himself, with plenty of longevity, something many working actors could only dream of happening.

Fresh off of his third box office hit Sonic the Hedgehog film, Marsden can now be seen in the new Hulu series, Paradise, where he plays the President of the United States. Created by This Is Us mastermind Dan Fogelman and co-starring Sterling K. Brown and Julianne Nicholson, Paradise is a wildly gripping political thriller, with several twists and turns, that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Knowing that Marsden is no stranger to playing a President, as he previously played John F. Kennedy in Lee Daniels’ 2013 film The Butler, I wondered what it was about his Paradise character, President Cal Bradford, that intrigued him in making this his next role to take on.

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ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden about the new Hulu series Paradise. Brown and Marsden discussed working with This Is Us’ Dan Fogelman on the project, collaborating together on set, and more.

“Paradise is set in an upscale community inhabited by some of the world’s most prominent individuals,” the synopsis for the show reads. “But this tranquility explodes when a shocking murder occurs and a high-stakes investigation unfolds.”

The first three episodes of Paradise will premiere on Hulu on January 28, 2025.

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Start spreading the news…James Marsden wants to step into Frank Sinatra’s shoes. The Jury Duty star, who has showcased his vocal talents in movies like Hairspray and Disenchanted, has long hoped to portray Ol’Blue Eyes in a biopic.

Speaking exclusively to Parade in a new interview, Marsden shared, “I’ve always wanted to play Sinatra… I grew up listening to his music. My mom used to play it all the time, and I sort of started emulating him, and it’s how I learned how to sing.”

Marsden pointed out that there are “several stories to tell about” the crooner, noting that “a lot of them [are] really sad ones,” but doing a Sinatra biopic “would be very cool.”

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From his quiet life as a sheriff in Green Hills to a battle-filled one after meeting Sonic, that also saw him become a fatherly figure, it’s been quite the journey for JAMES MARSDEN’s Tom Wachowski over the course of the last two movies. Ahead of the release of SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, we caught up with James to dig into the evolution of the family dynamic between the Wachowskis and Sonic, along with uncovering just some of the high-stake elements of the third instalment…

STARBURST: By the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Tom and Sonic become a family; they really are like a father and son. What can you tell us about the dynamic between Tom, Maddie, and Sonic within this third chapter, and how it compares to what’s come before it?

James Marsden: In the first film Tom and Sonic are on a road trip, and it’s kind of a buddy action comedy. By the end of that movie, you see a father and son thing start to evolve. You remind the audience that this character, who has all of these great superpowers is still a kid, in an environment and in a world that is very foreign to him. He needs guidance, and support, and love. In the second film, you see some flavours of Superman in his Earth father dynamic there. I always found that interesting, because here’s this character that is capable of such great and incredible things who still has self-doubt. The normal things that any kid going through adolescence would be experiencing, and the need for a calming presence, and a support figure in Tom and Maddie. So, it’s evolved into a family, where Tom and Maddie are essentially his parents, and now they also become parents to an echidna and a fox! As playful and fun as it can be on paper, where you see these two parents that are parenting three colourful, animated creatures, you never get the sense that you just have to play it silly. There’s a human component to all of this, and a human element that shines through, and I think that’s one of the reasons why these movies have more depth. Not in a heavy-handed way, but I think there’s more dimension to them. In the third film, Sonic is really starting to build his confidence. He’s got his core group of friends, and he’s now met with a new adversary through Shadow, who’s quite a bit more powerful than he is. He’s having to learn to allow other people to come in and help as well. “You can’t do everything alone!” It’s almost like you’re witnessing him turn into a fully realised adult, with the constant support of love and guidance from his family.

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The party’s just getting started for Jury Duty stars James Marsden and Ronald Gladden.

On Wednesday, nominations were announced for the 2023 Emmy Awards, and Amazon Freevee’s surprise hit comedy picked up four nods: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Marsden, Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. Once Marsden found out that he earned his first-ever Emmy nomination for playing a fictionalized version of himself, he immediately called up his onscreen-turned-IRL BFF Gladden to celebrate the news.

“Once I heard him pick up the phone, I just kind of yelled as loud as I could,” Marsden tells EW with a laugh just a few hours after nominations were announced. “It was just gibberish, I don’t think I was even speaking English. And he started yelling too. It was just like two drunk college buddies.”

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James Marsden and the Jury Duty cast are overjoyed by their four Emmy nominations.

Marsden, 49, and the cast have “many, many big plans for celebration” after the announcement Wednesday morning, he tells PEOPLE. The first celebration began with Marsden’s initial phone call to none other than his unwitting costar Ronald Gladden.

“I just wanted that to be my first call and make sure he’s still enjoying all of this, and feeling like we’re all going through it together,” Marsden said. Of Gladden — who was the only cast member who didn’t know the show was a mockumentary — he adds, “He’s over the moon.”

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James Marsden went to bed as late as he could Tuesday night, hoping he would sleep through the Emmy nominations announcement this morning. “But of course, when you do that, you wake up three hours before the nominations, and you just ruminate for three hours,” he tells Vanity Fair with a laugh.

The actor, who stars in Freevee’s unconventional comedy series Jury Duty, was just as unsure as the rest of us if his show would be acknowledged by the TV Academy. “It’s not your traditional comedy. You could argue that yes, there were scripts, but it wasn’t really scripted. It was a hybrid of reality and scripted architecture,” he says. “There’s these incredible shows like Ted Lasso and Barry that are proven. I didn’t think I was ever in the conversation, and I really didn’t know if the show was either. So it was a real genuine surprise when the show got its love…. I know everyone always says, ‘Well, I didn’t expect it.’ But I really, really didn’t this time around.”

Jury Duty followed an unsuspecting man (Ronald Gladden) who thinks he’s been chosen for a regular jury when in reality, he’s on a hidden-camera show, surrounded by actors. Marsden played a character called James Marsden who exhibited all of the stereotypical traits you’d expect from a celebrity trying to get out of jury duty. But in the end, Gladden’s enigmatic and kind personality made him an unexpected hero on the show.

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We don’t have to feel sorry for “the other guy” from “The Notebook” any longer. James Marsden can now boast that he’s scored an Emmy nomination for playing himself!

The actor, known for his roles in “The Notebook,” the “X-Men” franchise, “Westworld” and “Dead to Me,” received some of the best reviews of his career earlier this year for playing a satirical version of himself in Amazon Freevee’s genre-bending sitcom “Jury Duty.”

The series revolves around an unsuspecting man, played by Ronald Gladden, who thinks he signed up to be in a documentary about jury duty. The gag? It’s all fake. Everyone except him is an actor, including meta-Marsden.

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