‘Jury Duty’ star James Marden / Remembering Roy Book Binder
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
From WQXR and Carnegie Hall comes Classical Music Happy Hour, a new podcast hosted by me, Pianist Maniacs. Each episode, we'll speak with a special guest, listen to musical gems, play music-inspired games, and answer questions from our listeners. The first episode drops March 4th. Listen on the NPR app. This is Fresh Air.
I'm David Bianculli. Jury Duty is the prime video streaming series about one unwitting regular guy who becomes part of a staged fake jury, not knowing that everyone around him is a professional actor. Season two of Jury Duty premieres today on Prime, but in a new setting, the corporate retreat of a fake hot sauce company called Rockin' Grandmas, which is in the midst of a corporate takeover. Again, one lone employee knows nothing of the ruse and is surrounded by actors. The new season is called Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat. Today, we're going to listen to our 2023 interview with James Marsden, the most well-known of the actors in the original Jury Duty. In that show, a regular guy named Ronald Gladden had agreed to participate in a documentary about the experience of being a juror in an L.A.
courtroom. He doesn't know that everyone around him—the rest of the jury, the judge, the witnesses—is an actor who is improvising. They're all kind of odd, and their behavior is unpredictable, even more so than in a regular reality show. Marsden plays a satirical, self-absorbed version of himself, serving as an alternate juror. Marsden's other recent TV shows include Westworld and Dead to Me, and next month he joins the cast of Jon Hamm's Apple TV series Your Friends and Neighbors. His films include The Notebook, the 2007 version of Hairspray, and Disney's Enchanted. He also played Cyclops in the X-Men film franchise. We're going to listen to Marsden's interview with Fresh Air's Sam Brigger. Let's hear a clip from the original Jury Duty.
The potential jurors are sitting in the courtroom waiting area, and Ronald realizes that the man sitting next to him is James Marsden. Dude, that's where I know you from. You're an X-Man.
Oh.
What is the premise of the 'Jury Duty' series?
I've been f***ing thinking that this entire time. I didn't ask your name because Yeah, James. Pleasure. Nice to meet you. Yeah, I was trying to pinpoint it, and I was like, I've seen you somewhere. Yeah, but I've been in, like, so much stuff. It's like X-Men and Hairspray and Chanted in Westworld and stuff like that, but Notebook. Oh, shit, you're in Westworld?
Yeah, yeah. I know him from the Notebook. He's in the Notebook? Nuh-uh. What is he in the Notebook? The other guy. He's the other guy? The guy she really should have got together with.
Oh, my God. I haven't seen that movie in so long. I didn't even... I didn't realize. I was looking at his socks over here. It looked like it said Sonic. And I'm in that movie Sonic. And I was like, does he have Sonic socks on? Oh, shit, you're in the movie Sonic? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the new one with Jim Carrey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard that was not a good movie.
That's a scene from Jury Duty with Ronald Gladden and my guest, James Marsden. James Marsden, welcome to Fresh Air.
Thank you, Sam. Happy to be here.
It's great to have you here. So I just want to ask you first, when you heard about what the show was going to be about, did you have any reservations about doing it?
How does James Marsden describe his role in 'Jury Duty'?
I only had reservations. Yes, I did, of course. It was a very ambitious conceit. I was approached by my friend David Bernad, who is a producer of The White Lotus. We've done a couple of projects together before. And he asked if I'd be interested in getting on a Zoom with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stipnitsky at The Office, who I was a huge fan of that show. And he gave me sort of a basic one-liner idea of the concept of the show, which is basically we're taking the Truman Show and we're dropping it in the middle of jury duty. And I said, okay, well, let's expound on that. What's my part? What am I doing? And I got excited about... all of the sort of improvisational element of the show and the sort of live theater
part of the whole thing. So, yeah, I'm a big Christopher Guest fan.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:21
2
What is the premise of the 'Jury Duty' series?
2:21–3:33
3
How does James Marsden describe his role in 'Jury Duty'?
3:33–14:39
4
What reservations did James Marsden have about participating in 'Jury Duty'?
14:39–25:21
5
What unique aspects of 'Jury Duty' does Marsden highlight?
25:21–28:07
6
How did Marsden prepare for his satirical character?
28:07–33:18
7
What makes Ronald Gladden a compelling hero in 'Jury Duty'?
33:18–48:28
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Fresh Air
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