In the first season of Jury Duty, James Marsden was a significant highlight. The show was original and risky as it was by design, but the X-Men star added a special extra dimension by playing an exaggerated/super Hollywood version of himself. He earned a lot of acclaim for his work, and it was clear in the finale that he had a lot of fun… but at the same time, there is apparently no part of him that misses not being a part of Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat.
In a bit of scheduling kismet, Marsden has been doing press as of late for his new movie Mike And Nick And Nick And Alice, which just so happens to coincide with the release of Jury Duty Season 2 – and when CinemaBlend spoke with him during the recent press day for the former, we snuck in a question about his reality show experience. Asked if he was jealous not to be a part of the Prime Video series' latest run, Marsden explained,
Nope. I had my experience, and that was plenty. It was lovely. Well, I thought it was going to be maybe a big disaster. I don't actually… that's not true. I didn't think it was going to be a disaster. It's because it's never been done before. It's easy to watch the show and then play Monday morning quarterback and look back and go, 'Oh, I knew all along.' But it was really a big swing and it could have been a big failure. But I guess I look at every job that way.
While the end result of Jury Duty Season 1 is super fun and clever, it's not particularly difficult to respect that production must have been ridiculously stressful. The entire premise hinged on "hero" Richard Gladden not understanding that everything going on around him was fictionalized, and a single slip up could have ruined the entire enterprise. When an actor messes up a take on a normal show, the camera can stop and the director can call for another take. Heck, in a play, a performer can always rebound from a flubbed line. But Jury Duty functions without any safety net of that nature.
James Marsden doesn't miss the stress of making Jury Duty, but he did add that there is one aspect of the experience he'd like to try again in a professional capacity: making fun of himself. He added,
I think as much fun as I had playing myself and sending myself up and satirizing Hollywood and celebrity and entitlement… I did enjoy that. I wish I could do that again. But I want the show to continue, and I know that for it to be successful and to be effective that way, I can't really be a part of it anymore.
Jury Duty was a once in a lifetime experience, and James Marsden is clearly satisfied with that knowledge.
In the meantime, fans of the show can dig into the critically acclaimed Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat with an Amazon Prime subscription. The first five episodes are currently available to stream, and the final three will be made available on the service starting this Friday, April 3. And if you need a dose of new James Marsden work in your life, Hulu subscribers can now check out Mike And Nick And Nick And Alice, co-starring Vince Vaughn and Eiza González.
