James Marsden knows a thing or two about being pegged as the bad-guy love interest. Hello, this is the guy who has spent the better part of the last 15 years being considered the “villain” in the modern-day romantic classic “The Notebook” with his portrayal as Lon, the non-Ryan Gosling war veteran and interim love interest to Rachel McAdam’s Allie. It’s a reputation he still challenges.

“There was nothing wrong with Lon in ‘The Notebook,’” Marsden says matter-of-factly, with a layer of playfulness. “But for some reason, he’s the bad guy. And it’s like, wait, [he’s] letting her actually go figure her stuff out. He’s understanding! But some people think he’s the bad guy.” With his role in “Dead to Me,” Marsden at least understands the animus. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)

The buzzed-about Netflix traumedy, released earlier this month, stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in a story centered on the unlikely — and darkly twisted — friendship between two women. Judy (Cardellini) befriends Jen (Applegate) at a grief counseling group not long after the hit-and-run death of Jen’s husband, Ted. Viewers soon learn that Judy was driving the car that killed Ted. And she’s been covering it up at the urging of her smarmy, narcissistic, money-laundering ex-fiance Steve (Marsden), who was in the car with her when it happened.

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Source: Collider

‘Dead to Me’, a dark dramedy that premiered on Netflix on May 3, explores the themes of female friendship and grief in its first season. The series is interspersed with pleasant moments and mystery and strikes a perfect balance between the two. The cast features Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as friends Jen and Judy, who meet at a grief counseling group.

James Marsden plays Steve, Judy’s ex-fiance who is also an opportunist and a money launderer. Steve is sly, cunning and manipulative and has a lot of back-and-forth with the female leads of the show.

Speaking about his role on the show in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide, Marsden said that he saw Steve as a bad guy — “a little bit” — but he doesn’t think Steve would see himself in the same light — “like most bad guys”.

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Source: Collider

Source: HODINKEE

TORONTO — James Marsden tries to avoid slipping down the rabbit hole of emotional darkness in his career — and after the latest season of dystopian series “Westworld” the actor needed a palette cleanse.

It’s one of the reasons Marsden says he signed onto “Sonic the Hedgehog,” a live-action and CGI animated flick based on the popular video game. While his character in the film is veiled in secrecy, he insists it’s nothing like Teddy, the robotic gunslinger he plays on TV.

“I always try and do the polar opposite of what I just finished, and ‘Westworld’ is a heavy show,” he says of the series, which finishes its latest season Sunday on HBO Canada.

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The erstwhile Teddy Flood tells The Hollywood Reporter about the next few episodes: “If the curve is going one way, it’s only going up as far as the intensity, danger and potential for catastrophe.”

“That’s the last of my mercy. Better use it fast.”

With those words, paired with a single bullet, James Marsden’s Teddy Flood demonstrates just how much he’s changed — or been forced to change, more accurately. The gentle-hearted hero at the heart of Westworld transformed into a brutal killing machine midway through season two, thanks to Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), who commanded the alterations in order to help Teddy survive their struggle. Even Dolores seems taken aback by how the changes have taken hold, caught off-guard in episode six, “Phase Space,” when Teddy shoots a prisoner dead in the middle of an interrogation. It’s similarly jarring to see Teddy offer a bullet to a man as a means of mercy, rather than save him from certain doom.

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Do Westworld robots cry real tears? That’d be a question for the bloggers and the Redditors who obsess over the hit HBO science-fiction mindbender. But right now, on a weekday morning in the Santa Monica Mountains, Teddy Flood is welling up.

James Marsden, the actor who plays Flood, has just shared some heartfelt thoughts about family and fatherhood, and his eyes are moist. “Sorry, I get emotional when I talk about this stuff,” he says.

He could blame the location—the small lake we just passed in Franklin Canyon Park is where the nostalgic opening for The Andy Griffith Show was filmed, with Opie and his Pa going fishing. We’re technically in the middle of Los Angeles but, as Marsden notes, it doesn’t look like Los Angeles. “That’s such an L.A. thing to say!” he says with a laugh.

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James Marsden is the poster boy for charming robots.

In Sydney this week to promote Westworld, he was on stage in front of a giant poster of himself playing sentient robot Teddy Flood in the HBO show. Marsden might have ditched the cowboy hat and stubble in real life, but he still looks like a theme park’s version of a perfect human.

But the good guy Teddy of season one (who died five times but was still so gosh-darn polite) has made way for a darker Teddy in season two. Now, his character is joining forces with other robot hosts on the show to rise up against the humans that run Westworld — and things are looking bloody. Hell yes.

Still, as his character rebels against his creators on screen, Marsden is hoping artificial intelligence doesn’t get that far in the real world.

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