James Marsden Talks Playing Himself in ‘Jury Duty’ & How He Used the Role to Make Fun of Certain Stars

James Marsden opened up about what it was like to play a self-absorbed version of himself in his upcoming project Jury Duty.

If you were unaware, The 49-year-old actor stars in a docu-style comedy about being on jury duty that is coming to Amazon Freevee next month.

Instead of portraying a character, James plays a version of himself who attempts to use his star power to get out of serving on a jury. During a new interview, he explained what it was like to dramatize himself and how he used the casting as a chance to make fun of a certain breed of celebrities.

“It was great because I obviously didn’t wanna play just nice James Marsden. I wanted to play a sort of self-involved, you know, egocentric actor version of James Marsden, who was sort of my way of being able to make fun of celebrities and entitled celebrities,” he explained during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.

“And of course he’s trying to get out of it because he’s, you know, he’s not one of the people. Like, ‘I don’t do this. I’m clearly gonna be a distraction,’” he continued. However, his attempts to get off were unsuccessful as the judge was unimpressed.

“Marsden gets up and says, ‘Hey, I got a meeting with a big director. I gotta get outta this. You know, I’m gonna be a distraction.’ Judge doesn’t know who I am. ‘Sit your ass down, You’re serving jury duty,’” he said about the moment, which plays out in the trailer.

James also recalled another moment from the project, where he says that his jury experience is only from being on the jury for the Cannes Film Festival.

While his attempts to get out of jury duty in the series were unsuccessful, James recalled that he was recognized when he was called to serve on a jury in real life. It sounds like he was a bit of a distraction, too.

“I was picked for jury duty. I actually tried to say, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be a distraction or not,’” he recalled. “Because one of the lawyer’s opening statements in the middle of it, he turned to me in my, you know, my jury seat and said, ‘By the way, I love everything you’ve done.’ And I kind of turned to the judge and went, ‘Am I gonna be influencing people’s decision on this case?’”

Jury Duty premieres on April 7.

Did you know that James is one of a slew of actors asking to be cast in another popular project?

Check out a trailer for Jury Duty and two clips from James Marsden’s interview below…

Source: JustJared