James Marsden Q&A for ‘Jury Duty’ | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

like let's see if this works Let's Get Him to the Finish Line first and then see if it's even funny yeah yeah because because we were thinking that I was so dead set on like this has to be we have to protect this guy by the end of it we all need to run up and give him a hug and say hey this was fake but not all of it was fake like this the friendships that you forged that we created that that's all real that's real human experience and that's not going away thank you so much for coming out tonight my name is Janelle Riley I'm an editor at variety I'm so thrilled to be here tonight with this q a with everyone's Obsession jury duty um please join me in welcoming tonight's guest he is of course a fantastic actor who has received five sag Award nominations for his work in projects like Hairspray 30 Rock and dead to me I am being completely serious when I say he is now enjoying the role of a lifetime playing James Marsden on jury duty please welcome James Marsh thank you how's it going all right thank you so much for being here congratulations on actually two great series because you're also playing an entitled actor on party down yeah I'm starting to see a Common Thread you don't want to be too good at those roles you know like no no I like to keep them guessing that it's not really me but it actually is that's the problem enough of this acting stuff right let's just go right into being uh yeah yeah I forgot about that the the bid on party then I was sort of sending up the uh the kind of Hollywood uh superhero guy too yeah I'm starting to see a trend uh well this is an audience of your fellow sag after actors yeah hi guys yeah yeah yeah so I always like to start by asking how did you get your sag card oh uh boy I think I was I think I got my sag card on the nanny um yes I think I was cathart leading to Sag through two episodes of The Nanny I was on the pilot episode this is by the way you guys weren't even born yet I don't think I'm looking at here like no one was this was 93 1993 I had two lines uh I was Eddie the kissing waiter very specific I was caught kissing the uh the daughter at a dinner party on the balcony and I was asked to go home I said okay and that was it and they brought me back for another episode and I think I got my sad card with that oh and since then it's just been all I can do to make sure no one takes it away I don't trust anything now In fairness you knew jury duty was fake unlike poor Ronald I did but I remember like I've never done much improv and I was nervous going into it and I called Ben Schwartz who's the voice of Sonic it does this amazing The Amazing improv stuff I said I'm getting ready to step into something that I might regret I don't know if I'm gonna be good I don't know if I'm going to screw the whole thing up or not but here's the conceit and it's kind of it feels like a prank show like a hidden camera thing but it's not really that the producer is saying it's not that's a hero's journey for someone which it did turn out to be that but Ben goes make sure you're not the one they're punking that really brilliant because it could have been it was such an experience for me as much as it was for Ronald um I know you guys just saw the first episode but um those people who have seen the whole show yeah I had a feeling yeah no it was it was really crazy because it was like one it was like okay this is You could argue that it's ethically questionable keeping somebody in the dark for three weeks of their life and at the end going hey we're celebrating you though it's all good right here's a hundred thousand dollars bye um so I was I was talking with the producers in Jake simanski the director of through the whole thing saying it's important to me that you know I got excited about I love Christopher Guest I love Larry David I love Larry Sanders show like scripted uh improvisational shows where it's like there's no scripted dialogue but there's scripted circumstances and and comedy beats that you're supposed to push was really exciting to me to get in a room with a lot of you know improv young improv guys and and girls and and mess around but I wasn't ready for him because you know you have to be kind of you gotta you gotta be a Nimble and able to Pivot when if you want him to take a left turn and he takes a right you got to take a right with him and you kind of go with the flow the whole thing so it was definitely felt experimental that that thing I just said in the uh I said morning my for my career I was actually feeling that at certain moments what what am I doing what it felt like you're really doing [ __ ] jury duty where you're like stuck in a box for three weeks and there's no makeup in here there's no nothing glamorous about it at all and it was kind of fun to you know kind of get lost in that but it was also like but are two people gonna see this show it's like what's Amazon freebie I don't know what that is uh that's freeing though well right it's watching yeah but I I think that's part of it to be honestly it was it was um it was liberating it was like the feeling that maybe no one is watching means I can do whatever the hell I want yeah and it was like I can be yeah I got excited about playing this character of James Marston which I never thought that would that would be my ticket to sitting up here talking in front of you guys uh but I got excited about lampooning you know your sort of cliche Hollywood entitled petulant brat you know that that thinks that the only conversation to have is you know whatever his next project is and uh and every everything should come back to him and and then you put it in this the backdrop of jury duty or like you know all those great equalizers out there like the DMV we all have to stand in line for the DMV um and no one gives a [ __ ] who he is yeah and it drives him crazy like I love I love that and it was it was it was fun to kind of send you know send myself up I guess in some ways uh but yeah it was not like anything I've ever experienced before because I'm used to scripted you know comedy drama all that stuff and it's like this is there were scripts there were seven scripts but it was all stage directions like Marsden gets up and tries to get out of jury duty by saying he's going to be a distraction that was kind of it and I get to make up whatever I want on top of it which is fine do you have rehearsals kind of we did yeah the the other actors had about a week two weeks of rehearsals and I had three days of rehearsal I just kind of got thrown into it um because I was doing party down actually and it went late so um yeah I just kind of had to roll with it and I was terrified to Great bench Schwartz who by the way if you're going to ask the great Ben Schwartz with no exaggeration my phone [Laughter] the best improviser I've ever seen no he's unreal improv is insane yeah my favorite and I promise we won't just talk about Ben this whole time no feel free in fact the great mentor great um my favorite part in the whole series is when Ronald comes back and he is telling you he's seen Sonic and then he he invokes Ben and your expression is so classic perfect because like I mean you just don't know what he's going to say you have no idea what he's going to say you know I don't know anything about him other than he's six foot six he's a solar panel contractor out of San Diego and they're like have fun and like you have no idea what I didn't know if he's gonna know who I was it was great that he didn't at first it was great that he said I heard that was a bad movie I mean it was comedy gold for me to like because if he was a sycophant and was like oh I love all your stuff and this that I mean I could be like yeah yeah it's pretty good it's my stuff that I've been in pretty good but it was way more fun to be cocksure and then have him be like oh I heard that was terrible yes and he was like kind of piecing yourself back together and but it was a Prelude of getting into what we were where we were gonna go which was like nobody cares who Mars this and the the sort of the laughs that come from that and so the next day he was like I'm so sorry I saw the movie and it was great and like okay okay I feel better now and you didn't tell me Ben Schwartz was in it yeah but he's kind of like a I forget he's in it really yeah he's kind of a forgettable voice I was there on set every day like a real actor my friend got really upset he was like there's no way he doesn't know who James margin is and he knows who Ben Schwartz is he was so he was a big parks and rec fan and so um fox is in it and we had the port cart he was one of the funniest people in our like when we were doing the um uh the rehearsals the [ __ ] he was coming up with was so brilliant and they had to tell him to dial it all back because because Ronald came out and said he was a big parks and rec fan so he had to kind of Fade Into the Shadows a bit otherwise he'd be like wait Mars is here the guy from Parks and Rec is here Mickey Leeper from Secret Life of college girls and so we were very cautious about tipping the you know tipping our hand but um but yeah Kirk's Kirk's amazing and and yeah Ronald I I can't imagine this thing working with anybody yeah we really got lucky finding him because he's such a pure hearted kind soul and you know made me feel terrible about the stuff I needed had to do to him yeah I mean I want to talk about that because what you do is so brilliant you walk uh okay see Ben Schwartz is great you're brilliant so um yes let's get him on the phone you have to walk such a fine line between playing you know this this spoiled brat and yet still believable because we know those people none of it is unbelievable but sometimes I feel like you have to walk it back a little because like there's a couple times where I feel like you almost push Ronald too far and you have to read that yeah and and because he's such a good human being he's he's so empathic that if anyone was uncomfortable around him he would feel he would put his arm around them and um and so there were moments where we had characters that were you know constructed to and circumstances that were constructed to make him uncomfortable not not not in a sense that we're trying to make him the butt of the joke because I was very clear from the beginning like I don't want to be in a prank show I don't want to do anything cruel or mean-spirited um and uh so but but there are moments that we're going to make him you know they were going to challenge him I guess test him like Todd with the stupid chair pants and slipping the notes under the door and he just put his arm around Todd and like got him a makeover and all this showed him Bug's Life showed him A Bug's Life was like the sweetest ways kind of thing so I had to this the dance was how do I keep him close to me because I had to be the Catalyst for so many of the moments we were going for and I needed to have him as a pal so there were moments where the hours and hours of me just being normal James Marsden where I wasn't the sort of you know the self-involved egocentric prick uh just a little bit of it because uh it's really me um and and I would just have a genuine connection with the guy yeah real conversation about his life his family and of course none of that makes the show because it's not as interesting so they would cut that out and then I would bring him in and then I would do something horrible and that's what ended up in the show of course but then as soon as I would do that he would move away from me like he would he didn't want to be associated with you know an entitled Hollywood guy if I was being mean or unfair or selfish um or just making other people feel uncomfortable because he's such a good guy yeah and so then I'd have to like the you guys have seen it so the party yes it was written that like Marsden comes in like foam the runway he's coming in hot he throws the cake pops every balloon destroys all of the the everything throws cake at people I think it was like a full-on tantrum but as soon as I flipped the cake I saw it out of the corner of my eye Ronald kind of hang his head and I was like I can't can't do this to this guy because he was upset that I was upset and he was upset that I was ruining somebody's birthday so I was like okay well no TV and no laughs is worth messing with somebody's Human Experience like this it's just not worth it so I left and I thought okay I was supposed to just leave and be gone and I took I talked to Nick Hatton the producer who worked on Borat and Jake sabansi the director I said I have to go back I have to apologize but maybe we can sort of thread some comedy back into that like I'll go back and bring another cake but it'll be like it's a girl cake so you have a little still the little button of the comedy with the gesture and the intention was yeah you know like hey I'm sorry I was I I'm you know I screwed up you sort of see in the final episode where they're showing like a look behind the scenes that it looks like you'd pushed him too far in that moment I think he even says like I'm done yeah he said I'm not that guy is not welcome back and I'm like good for you yeah because I was I should not have been invited back um and I thought too when I was doing it I was like well I'm the ass I'm the jackass who thinks that this party is a pity party for losing out on Lone Pine right the laughs and it should be at me but you know it was I just couldn't get past the feeling that it made him bummed out yeah you know because like we can surround him with all these crazy circumstances and scripted Beats and he can kind of roll his eyes or or you know kind of laugh it off but if anything actually affects him and makes him nervous or makes him upset it was I was not going for that a strange question but because you're also playing these characters there's sort of a show within a show for example a lot of the actors you see scenes without Ronald where they're sort of keeping up sort of what is what is a workplace comedy in places so I'm thinking of the soaking scene where you're jumping on the bed for yeah are you because Ronald's not there are you laughing during it or are you staying in character are you you know you kind of you kind of just say the character I think I mean I was of course laughing because it was just me and and Mickey and Edie and so such funny actors um but it was kind of on the Fly and we did it in sequence it wasn't like we're coming back another day and getting a special shot of that it was like we left Ronald and went in that room and shot that immediately right after so it was all we didn't have to because it was just it was the three cast members but we just and he's in there giggling his head off well that's why I wondered if that was why you did it for plausible deniability if he came in or something you had to run a tight ship that way like that couldn't there couldn't be any like you couldn't fake anything yeah you had to go through with it and that's when we shot the soaking scene and right out right out of the gates he was like oh uh as long as I don't have to help you soak you do your thing and I really want to know but an audience member asked it better so I'm actually going to credit them um oh Sarah Oliver way in the back there wants to know what was the protocol for the inevitability of breaking or laughing during the inappropriate moments maybe you didn't laugh I well no we did because there were definitely there were moments where we wanted to break namely the one that I remember vividly was when they when Sean shows the really terrible animation and they didn't show it to us beforehand so we didn't know what the hell's gonna look like and it was some janky Roblox like it's glitchy and you can see all of us like but it was okay because we would have laughed in court at that anyway but I lost my [ __ ] that day I was like that is the funniest thing I've ever seen and uh but then there were other moments where I think the hardest part was in the deliberation room and in the courtroom you could kind of hi if you started to laugh you could kind of sneak out or go to the bathroom or you know kind of go get some potato chips or something the group interviews at the end of each day where we're sat like this facing the cameras and [ __ ] Ron song who plays the Korean is so damn funny and he's plays this character who talks really slow and he didn't even get like he has a business where he has gumball machines and stickers it's so stupid so anytime he started talking it was like and he was right in front of me so the camera's appointed at me and he just was so damn funny yeah and I I was like and Ronald's right here so I had to like pinch myself to like you as an actor like you you know doing Sonic with Jim Carrey like Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz the Great benchwartz like Jim will come in and we'll hit you with a hundred things you didn't anticipate and the last thing you want to do is screw up a two shot with you and Jim when he does something brilliant and you screw it up because you're laughing so I got used to like I have to create pain I don't know if this is a tactic that you guys use but like I'll go home with bruises on my like left side because if it'll keep you from laughing if you just if the pain overrides the humor so I'm like pinching myself like anyway yeah it's it's a it's a little it works for me but yeah it's uh I gotta go back to back and watch Sonic again when a whole new light and watch those yeah yeah but there were I mean there were moments where I think I think it was the Fear Factor of if we laugh this whole thing goes down the toilet yeah so nobody wanted to be the one to spoil the whole thing and upend it um so we were all very cautious about you know getting him to the finish line which is three weeks you know we had to it was uh it was it was a long time and uh and I knew that um if I laugh at the wrong spot or get too comfortable or if anybody gets too comfortable he's gonna get suspicious and be like what is this and there were a couple moments he did I wondered he someone called uh a cast member by their real name and and he was like and he's really switched on of course he's like hold on we don't have a Cassandra in here who's the Cassandra and then and then uh sheeds who plays our bailiff who's the other person just making me crack up all the time because I'm sat as a stupid alternate I didn't even make the jury and I'm facing Rashida rasheeds who's our bailiff and I could see anytime she started her lips started to curl up is her face just like the sun when she smiles it's just like and I so it was like you know it's like church Giggles like one person starts laughing and then everyone starts laughing um but it was it was tough but I think everyone wanted to you know you could finish it yeah like let's see if this works Let's Get Him to the Finish Line first and then see if it's even funny yeah because because we were thinking that I was so dead set on like this has to be we have to protect this guy by the end of it we all need to run up and give him a hug and say hey this was fake but not all of it was fake like this the friendships that you forged that we created that that's all real that's real human experience and that's not going away because that last thing I wanted to do is finish and go hey man it was great to meet you sort of I gotta go we got you hope you enjoy your check uh you know because I'm like that's not me as a human being I have to like I got to know this guy he's a guy that we all could be more like I mean he's really really his Humanity just like I think is the reason why this show works as well one thousand percent yeah I know people myself included who were so worried about him and he's actually credited you a lot for like kind of helping him I I don't know if I want to say I just back into society but sort of deal with how weird this has all been because I was we all put ourselves in his position right like what what would I have done I can't even take a surprise birthday party let alone three weeks of I mean he said something really smart he said when someone said did you ever think that this was you know the Absurd stuff that was happening was fake and he said the idea that this whole thing was fake is so much more absurd yes than anything's hat that's happening in the courtroom like that's way more Preposterous that this whole thing could be orchestrated for three weeks so he was like I just had to take the absurdity is that came yeah you know um but that was really smart I thought like yeah would that the the idea that the conceit of the whole thing was staged and and completely fabricated around him was way more ludicrous I know this may sound strange but I I want to be very clear that you are you're playing a part here um and in addition to that am I giving you too much credit no this is this is a crazy Balancing Act um you know you're not only playing this role um you're it's not scripted you said you didn't really have much experience with improv um how do you sort of prepare to play yourself well like I said before this sort of I don't say brand of Comedy but Christopher Guest waiting for guffman's final tap Best in Show that kind of where there's a foundation of there are story arcs there are story ideas uh but no real dialogue scripted you have an architecture uh that you can go in and treat like a playground and you get to go in and just and armed with ideas of what your character is going to say that day or you know if Ronald says this or does that then maybe I can say this and it was it was fun for me because I've always wanted to do that kind of Comedy yeah which is get out of your head get your face get your mind off of the script because I'll see the pages in my head if I start to forget my dialogue I can actually see the script page and I'm like oh yeah that's my line and sometimes it's good because you can it can save you in situations where you forget your dialogue my friends are like how do you do that like the only time I forget a line is when you turn the page like I can see I can see it and I said yeah but sometimes it it takes you away from really connecting with eye contact with the person you're sharing a scene with and there's something about being in a pressure cooker of a situation like this was where you're in a room for five hours um and you're tasked with several things but two of the biggest things are one don't screw this up don't upend the whole thing and you know give the whole thing away two be funny um and there were plenty of I mean the writers of this show really are the unsung heroes of this whole thing I know everyone says this is improv but there was so much of this it was already sort of baked in um in the structure of these scenes right like it was you know I got I got the easy part which is to co to go in and and um and have fun making making fun of this sort of ass character that I'm playing and that was a blast but they had a lot of stuff already carved out like the meth Throne of tantrum at the birthday party and you know and and me you know reading the Lone Pine thing and going into character and like trying the method thing and like that was all in the script yeah but there was no dialogue it was like I just I got to say whatever I wanted to say but if I even give you like a couple suggested lines or anything yeah I mean like we would talk we would go in an hour and a half before Ronald would get there every day and we would as a cast and the producers never we'd talk about the day what's what the beats are and then we would go and hide no joke like around the corner in some Huntington Park like south of LA you know a little walkie-talkie and like okay Ronald Heroes arrived he's arrived okay send Marsden in his car and I would go in and like it was four and a half hours of staying in character wow um and but it sounds like that was such like an exhausting thing but it was so much fun yeah it really was fun like I liked this character too much like I can say all the things I normally might want to say but I can't I feel like this is what Larry David feels like with on curb um but yeah I wasn't you know I would go I would get excited about doing this kind of Comedy so at the end of every day I'd go home and think about what we're doing the next day and I'm like okay maybe I can say this and this would be funny and and there were talks with like you said like beforehand and after with Jake somanski the director and and all of our brilliant writers and we just chat about the next day like okay this is tomorrow you you know is the is the day where you come in and uh you do the audition with Ronald or whatever what kind of crazy [ __ ] can you do in the audition thing with him and I said I'm not going to turn the screws to him because I know I knew at the time that they were wanting me to kind of make him do silly stuff in the audition I was like no I'll make a jackass of myself and I I don't want to embarrass him because he's such a good guy and I still did a little bit but I was like this is a great opportunity to like create fake acting exercises yeah like he's not an actor so he wouldn't know what what we do normally like oh actually if you stand on your head and hold a parakeet in your left hand and like and pee on yourself it actually loosens you up for the scene you could just create whatever you want to create and he'd be like okay whatever makes you comfortable so like you know anyway he was going to do that partner actually for the read I was in prison he was he was he was really he was really there was real conviction there he really cared about helping me he cared about um the Integrity of the scenes like I mean I I I was like this is brilliant this is like Shakespeare and then by the end of the audition I'm like it doesn't make sense I can read it just tell me what you know so like again just being a lame a lame jackass but he was actually like I think there were moments where in the audition I was doing something really like the worst thing as an actor to do is to muscle your way into an emotional scene yeah the worst it's never going to work don't ever muscle your way into an emotional scene you either feel it or you don't and you gotta trust that what you're saying is is honest and the tears will come or they won't but as long as you mean it that's the most important thing but I did a take with him I was like this time you know and I think I just let him off the hook a little bit I was kind of like that was a little too big I don't think you need to do that just so much that's not in the show that was cut out I mean they're just there are so many gems I hope they create a whole other series about all the others I would love just to behind the scenes Susan who plays Barbara oh I love Barbie the old Barbara she just she had a whole story about how she would never stop talking about all the old uh Rock and Roll Hall of Famers that she slept with [Music] went down on Van Morrison and he was a lover let me tell you how is that not in the show so genius there's so much great stuff and so again a testament to the writers they like they wrote all of this this sort of outlines and paragraphs in the scripts that just had me howling and then you get there when the cameras start rolling and you just you kind of take the Baton and they're like hey here's what it's about have fun and it's like it's the greatest the greatest feeling was there really a Lone Pine script or did you sort of yeah well I thought maybe there might be for again I will say one of our writers wrote A three-page Lone Pine scene it was it was meant to emulate like what was the movie with Bradley Cooper where you played it American Sniper or or Stillwater with Matt Damon oh yes it was like supposed to be one of those movies right like super overly pretentious important not a pretentious but but like very important award Season movie you know and uh so they [Applause] we were all thinking it right so they wrote a scene that kind of you know was in that flavor yeah I guess the rest of the script was like a I don't know it was like a Harry Potter script or something I was like did they just wedged this scene into yeah that's so funny because I I've had written whole scriptures so that and you know in case Ronald looked you guys had to be so meticulous yeah oh I did I did think of that um and you're begging him to look more or less the way you're like oh I'm sorry I can't share this with you yeah yeah right no yeah I had to be careful about that but this is confidential uh it's called Lone Pine it's not on red pages though you could have copied it right yeah yeah I wish I could God I wish I could tell you who the director is I just can't and they're like we don't care you've done so many different genres I mean literally every genre you've done musicals and drama and comedy um you've been a literal Disney prince um I'm sort of curious uh this is a whole new set of challenges uh what has been your most challenging role either you know logistically or just something you know that we just made fun of deeply emotional scenes I I love comedy I always feel somehow more comfortable with it um I'm not as comfortable playing roles where I when I first got into Hollywood it was like they kind of wanted to cast me as that guy like you're always in a Letterman's jacket going you know like it was like the like leading man you know again I'm not like but I always saw myself as more of a character actor I just I just I wanted to be an SNL regular when I was growing up in Oklahoma I wanted to be a a goofy you know a guy who does Impressions I can't believe you've never done SNL yeah no I I was there a couple of weeks ago for the very first time and uh really and I was like when I was doing 30 Rock with Tina Fey I was like my dream would be on to it would be to be on SNL she's like oh I think you're gonna be honest now I'm like no no like as a cast regular like she's like what I feel like you're kind of getting to do that with your career anyway you're jumping all over different genres and all this kind of stuff so I love comedy but the stuff I get nervous about I just did this movie with Michael Keaton and he directed it and I played his son and Al Pacino's in the movie it's like very much not like jury duty yes it was a it was a heavy you know um film Noir adult film it was just like a really well written story and um and I had to do I read it and I usually when I read a script I'll look at it through the lens of the character I'm playing which I try to not to do I try to just take it as an experience and like see the movie in my head and I did when I read the script I was like I didn't look at it through the lens of the character I just was I want to be a part of this and I chatted with Michael and like he cast me in the role and I went back and read the script and I went oh [ __ ] this is this is going to require a lot like heavy lifting and I haven't exercised that muscle in a while and I was just like well get after it and uh that was that was nerve-wracking for me because it was if I didn't work if my performance didn't work the whole movie doesn't work and it's that if I would tell you the the setup of the story but trust me that if if I sucked the whole movie sucked um what's that you can't tell us you'd love to tell us yeah yeah that's a total fake movie with like with Michael Keaton that just made up no uh yeah so you asked like what makes you nervous or insecure it's like I don't know it's a that's an emotion I've gotten so comfortable with being an actor it's like we just all that way yeah I don't know anybody who rolls into set just like I'm the best [Laughter] James you thought that take was good way to the next one I mean we're we're all going like I remember Ian McAllen when we were doing the first X-Men movie and we were doing a scene in the Statue of Liberty's going well we referring to saying all this stuff and shouting and and the director was like tone it down this and that he and he had to walk off camera and walk towards me and he like came over and he hugged me goes I'm so fired all right Ian McAllen is feeling insecure about his ability then we all are as actors it's just part of woven into our DNA like and to me it just like it keeps you I don't know it just keeps you on edge I mean this it can get to a place where it's an unhealthy thing like you do want to be like no I'm work I'm I'm I'm ready I'm prepared I'm I will be good I want it to be good I'll give you my everything but sometimes you're just like I'm a fraud you know and I don't know any actor that doesn't feel like that yeah you know we all feel like the Imposter syndrome all of that stuff because like I said before like you know if I was a carpenter you know and my I was taught how to build a house I'd wake up in the morning and I'm like can you build a house yep but as an actor you're like am I going to have it today am I going to have that Focus am I in that little flame inside of us that'll you know a little gust of wind comes by and can blow it out I know that sounds really pretentious but like that's kind of it like am I gonna be in tune with what's going am I going to be interesting am I going to make the right choices and my most nervous moment is always a few days before I start work on something right because no decisions or no choices have been made yet to concrete what you're doing with that role so you're kind of like well [ __ ] there's still time to maybe do something different I don't know I did but once I you know once I start playing this character like you're kind of in it and then after a couple days it's like okay okay they didn't fire me but every actor has been fired I think at some point oh yeah Michael Keaton's been fired yeah yeah we all have it's a prerequisite we excel at um rejection and uh no no but it's it's it is a it's it's a very delicate thing and like you're you know you're asking somebody to do something to sort of reach down to the depths of their soul and pull out their their heart and you know leave it out there this scene and then they go okay hold on Cut we got a light we gotta move a light like you know and like oh that's lunch we're gonna break for lunch and we're gonna come back like this is the least you know it's just it's not conducive right right creativity yeah yeah and and you do get other takes and you get another chances at it but it really does uh the people I Marvel at the actors that that can just that have that focus and they can just stay in it you know I'm too like flighty and anything can distract me um so I guess with comedy it's easier because it's it feels like there's less not less stakes in some ways there's more Stakes because you got to make it funny and but um I guess there's a playfulness to the comedy that's like I get excited about going to work and going what ridiculous thing can I do or say today whereas with something is like really demands conviction and like like I said on this Keaton thing like heavy lifting like you're crying and you're you're ringing you know you're ringing yourself out over this um it's like am I gonna have it today or am I just gonna be like I mean I'm dead to me I mean those ladies were like crying every day and they're just putting they just were put through it and the third season Liz was like your turn right I was like where are we going with this and it got dark it got dark for the character and I was like can I do I have it I mean for me I was like I got maybe one or two takes where I can full on like feel it and cry but I can't do it from this angle and this angle and this angle and this angle in this angle for six hours well yeah because you bring your own experience to it and and you want it to feel authentic and you know when you when you when you pull those strings inside you and you you actually are feeling it it's torturous if you have to do it more than three or four times and then you're just like I'm out I'm I've got nothing left I can't do this anymore you know which is why I've learned over over time to be like if you do have a big emotional scene I'd go to the cinematographer and the director I'd say hey can we shoot the close-up first and then you know not that the scene should be about me but this is if it's an important scene and you're breaking down or whatever it's like can we get that first and then we can go out to the master smart yeah yeah because like you wasted on the master and nobody's going to see it yeah yeah um I do want to take a couple quick questions from the audience we have one from Luke Hudson are you where's Luke well there we go um wants to know what's your favorite movie that you have done it's a hard question to answer I don't I don't I don't look at any of my stuff and uh and think wow I really just knocked that out of the park uh I think of movies that were fun to like the process it was a blast like Hairspray was so much fun that was just a party every day and everyone was just loving being there and singing and dancing Enchanted was fun I read that script and I was like I know exactly what to do with this character um big you know Silly puffy sleeves and playing a prince uh X-Men was fun to be a part of but it wasn't like I was I wasn't really doing much acting it's weird that that was the thing I was known for the most but it was like oh yes I recognize your cheekbones I don't recognize your talent or your ability I still have yet to see that but uh uh but yeah I don't know I mean I mean this was a lot of fun it was it was jury duty was again I thought three people would see it yeah it was shot out of a cannon as soon as it aired and I was in New York and the next day I was like oh I needed to post about the premiere of jury duty and I went and got coffee the next day and every other person on the street was like oh the the jury the jury show amazing and it was on Tick Tock everywhere um but it was it was a really rewarding fun experience for me uh uh you know not to not to bring it back to the thing we're here talking about but it really was it was like I got to scratch that itch of being in a what I felt like a like of Chris roguez show you know um so it was it was good but it was terrifying because it was like this is not gonna work it's morally questionable and yeah I don't I don't know if this is if this is even funny I have no idea um but yeah best project I don't I don't I don't really know um yeah I don't have to think about that is Jordan here Jordan um wants to know if you've finished Sonic 3 yet uh good question the answer is no um we're a little delayed we're supposed to be shooting at this fall uh in London and uh should be fun but we'll see we'll see we were supposed to start in July and obviously you know everything that's going on with the writer strike and everything's pushing it a little bit and but um but yeah we're gonna be wheels up wheels up this fall hopefully uh uh we compared to jury duty in that it has no right to be as good as it is because oh the Sonic Universe at all and that movie made me cry when you're when you're holding the great Ben Schwartz I literally am weeping well I I that's very nice of you to say and I I had the same reservation stepping into it because I'd done a couple of other movies where I I star opposite an animated rodent of sorts and I thought if I take another movie again not to sound like you know ungrateful because um Sonic was a giant thing but before the movie was made I was like am I just gonna be the guy who's in movies opposite [Laughter] animated you know hedgehogs and stuff uh uh but but I knew the IP was really popular I knew that obviously a big video game and and I remember watching the when we were at the premiere it was me and it was Ben the great benchworth Tikka and Jim Carrey and about 20 minutes into the movie We turned and looked at each other like [Laughter] you know because you just always set your expectation bar a little low like I hope this is good yeah but we don't get I don't get precious about the work that I've done or carry it around on some sort of let you know some importance or whatever you want to call it like you do the work and you kind of move on you cross your fingers and hope that people the movie turns out great or the TV show and if it's a success you're like okay cool I didn't see that coming um but but Sonic was a big surprise it actually it played the kids and it also played to adults that still had this sort of high octane you know um action movie kind of elements to it and I was it was just really well done it's really good it was yeah I didn't think it was going to be great either I said no okay you thought just like Ronald Gladden you heard it was a terrible movie I'm still doing that I've seen it 100 times like come on is it really and it's surprisingly dark and edgy in places like the cake yeah yeah and part two Natasha Rothwell is it so good in it yeah yeah now I'm a Sonic fan look at that yeah who knew you just don't know I mean like when we were shooting The Notebook I remember everyone thinking like what uh so cheesy yeah you know everyone was just giving it their all yeah it was like it doesn't have to be cheesy it can be you know it's a Nicholas Sparks novel but what an incredible cast and Nick cassavetes directing it was like there's no such thing as I don't know I'm like I just feel like you can make anything into a great film if you choose to you know to to really give it that importance um and that was like okay well this will be a fun little romantic movie to do and now it's like our Casablanca yeah I mean maybe that's going a little too far no right guys it's like constantly it's better right the color I mean I would also say I often use 27 dress as an example of like whatever wrong works yeah yeah and it does everything right it's it really elevates it and that could have gone wrong so many ways so many ways like you said 27 Dresses that's our on the waterfront [Laughter] [Music] what's the new Godfather I like hop actually there's a movie if I if I could recommend something there's a movie called 10th and wolf that you did that sure that's anything that that took place in any of the classics no but like I remember it was one of the first things I saw you in when I was like this guy's good like yeah and it was like kind of a small Indie movie and I'd only seen you in the X-Men and I was like it was like it was like Turning Point yeah Bobby maresco wrote that and he wrote um a Million Dollar Baby and it was a really cool um uh movie with the Giovanni Ribisi and big Cass but uh it it was yeah it was like a kind of a gangster film yeah but do yourselves a favor tonight every one of you don't go check that movie out she may like it it's okay there's a reason why none of you in the room know what this is um well again I want to say that um I think jury duty is not just a great I don't even know if it would qualify as a reality show I think it's the best comedy of the year I think it's the best series on TV right now and a lot of that is due to you thank you so so much for being here that's very kind of you though I think we just we got really lucky with Ronald and he's he's the Beating Heart of this whole thing and I you know through the process it was like it's either going to it always felt like an either or it was like it's either going to be really funny and maybe kind of mean or it's going to be a hero's journey and we're going to celebrate this guy in his Humanity and the comedy is going to be muted because of it and and somehow it worked that both of them were that was like they could both coexist and I don't know how that happened but it was it did work and I just it's so wild that I'm sitting here talking about jury duty this show that I was like at the end of my career I swear to God when I was doing it I was like this is boy I remember David bernad so David bernad who produces the White Lotus is a friend of mine we did a movie called D train oh that's one of my favorites actually that Mike White who um does White Lotus he produced and wrote and uh and David was the one who brought me this concept of the show and he's like and it was Lee Eisenberg and Gene stupidnessky who created the office so it was like David those two guys Todd Shulman who does all the Sasha stuff for Borat I was like okay well we're gonna do this ambitious conceit I'm in good company um but uh but I remember telling David I was like who the hell are you gonna get for this role if I wasn't because I almost backed out yeah I was like I'm not prepared for this I've only had three days of rehearsal I don't know if I'm gonna be funny um I don't know if this is the right thing to do to this person you need to get Eric Andre or you need to get Nick Kroll or somebody to come in here and I was like who are you gonna get before me and he's like nobody I think we were really just maybe gonna do it without a celebrity and I was like okay well I think that was probably maybe a lie I think he just wanted me to feel like I was the only choice but I was really nervous about doing it and sorry I know we're going on and on and on but like I'm so happy that you all are here I'm so happy that you enjoyed it and um yeah it makes me really proud and you just never know what's gonna hit you just don't know what's gonna work because actors go in we do our jobs and then it's in the hands of the editors it's in the hands of the directors and you can cut together 10 different movies or 10 different shows with all the same performances and you just don't know so it's always a real surprise when something works and I wish I could take credit for it it's very kind of you to say but um I was just you know a cog in the wheel and the whole thing well I think Ronald is in Sag now so if we can get you guys to do another project like he's in Sag now I think I'm I love it everyone thinks he's such a super nice guy so pure him and Ryan Reynolds hanging out with the mint mobile commercials become a lucrative Venture for him well good for him for him he's a good dude again thank you so much and as a reminder all the episodes are on Amazon freebie but I think you all already know that um thank you so much for being a great audience thank you guys yeah

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 35,550

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Q&A, Interview

Id: evGT_t4ZDOc

Length: 49min 47sec (2987 seconds)

Published: Thu May 18 2023