Lizzy Caplan and James Marsden are friends. Good friends. Close enough that Caplan calls Marsden “Jimmy”—“When I hear ‘Jimmy,’ I’m like, Okay, that’s someone who knows me from a long time ago,” he says, smiling—and has programmed her phone so a very, er, colorful photo appears whenever the two of them get in touch.

“Your picture when you call me is of this Toblerone bar stuck in your butt,” the Fleishman Is in Trouble star tells Marsden, holding the proof up to her laptop’s camera. Some 4,000 miles away, Marsden—Zooming in from Bavaria, where he’s shooting an unscripted show for National Geographic—hoots and claps his hands.

A fitting image, considering the project that first brought the pair together. They met in the summer of 2011 while shooting Bachelorette, Leslye Headland’s caustic comedy based on her eponymous play, about three grown-up mean girls (Caplan, Kirsten Dunst, and Isla Fisher) causing chaos the night before their high school frenemy (Rebel Wilson) gets married. Marsden played best man Trevor, a charming snake who spends most of his screen time schmoozing Dunst. In their only solo scene together, Caplan’s Gena clocks Trevor on the head with a metal pitcher.

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Based on James Marsden’s history of playing impossibly handsome leading men — and often, would-be leading men — in movies including “27 Dresses,” “Enchanted,” “The Notebook” and the “X-Men” films, a burning ambition to do comedy wouldn’t be the first thing you’d imagine he’s been harboring all this time.

But the laughs have always been the Oklahoma native’s first love. “Before I moved out here (to L.A.), I wanted to be a regular on ‘SNL.’ Not a host — I wanted to actually be one of the cast,” Marsden said during a recent interview in Los Angeles. “I just felt like that played to my strengths. I was never that comfortable playing the super leading man. I was more interested in the character actors, the goofy roles.”

So when David Bernad approached him about a series he was exec-producing that was not only funny but also preposterously off-the-wall original, Marsden was intrigued. Created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who were writer-producers on “The Office,” Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty” shares plenty of DNA with that beloved NBC comedy. Only think of it as the version where everyone at Dundler Mifflin knows what’s being filmed is fake — everyone but, say, Dwight Schrute.

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James Marsden is not a jacka**, but he loved playing one on TV. In “Jury Duty,” Marsden shows up to do his civic duty alongside a room full of average mortals and nonchalantly lets everyone know how famous he is. As he ingratiates himself with Ronald Gladden, the easygoing hero of the documentary-style comedy, Marsden can barely contain his excitement at being recognized.

What Gladden doesn’t know is that this version of James Marsden is not the real Marsden. The civil case he and the other jurors are considering isn’t real, either. The only real element in this production is Gladden. And Marsden, working with the show’s creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who worked together on “The Office”) along with showrunner Cody Heller, was adamant about ensuring that Gladden emerge from the story as its hero.

Based on the escalating popularity of “Jury Duty,” that direction is striking a chord. Viewers have fallen for Gladden’s sincerity and forbearance, especially when he responds to characters like David Brown’s tech apparatus-obsessed Todd by showing him “A Bug’s Life” to let Todd know that he understands and accepts him. (The next day, Todd shows up to court wearing “chair pants.”)

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I’ve uploaded 27 HQ photos from the 2023 French Open at Roland Garros to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.06.09]2023 French Open – Day Thirteen (HQ)

James Marsden likes playing the jackass.

Especially when that jackass is the entitled version of himself he’s playing in Amazon Freevee’s breakout comedy “Jury Duty.”

The improvised docu-style series follows Ronald Gladden, a real person unaware the increasingly chaotic jury he’s found himself on is completely fake. Everyone around him — including Marsden’s portrayal of himself as the out-of-touch celebrity — is an actor playing their part in the ruse.

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The sleeper hit “Jury Duty” documents a trial, focusing particularly on one juror, Ronald Gladden. Except it’s not a real documentary; the cameras are real, the trial is fake, and a cast of actors surrounds Gladden, who is unaware of the ruse. But Gladden is not being set up as a mark; the Freevee limited series makes him a hero. And it turns juror-actor James Marsden into a petulant, spoiled Hollywood star.

In reality, executive producer Todd Schulman says, “James Marsden the person was basically the antithesis of James Marsden the character on the show.”

Co-creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (“The Office”) worked with their writers to create outlines and scripts that would provide the springboard for improvisation, designing the show as a comedic “12 Angry Men.” Filling a shuttered courthouse in Huntington Park with hidden cameras in addition to the “documentary” crew, they enacted a fake civil trial from jury selection to deliberations. Early on, Eisenberg thought of including a celebrity, since in L.A., actors serve along with everybody else.

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Jimmy attended the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco at Circuit de Monaco in Monte-Carlo, Monaco on May 28. I’ve uploaded 12 HQ photos from this event to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.28]F1 Grand Prix of Monaco (HQ)

Jimmy attended the amfAR Cannes Gala 2023 at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes, France yesterday. I’ve uploaded 41 HQ photos from this event to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.25]amfAR Cannes Gala 2023 (HQ)

Jimmy attended the launch of the new Aston Martin DB12 at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes in Cannes yesterday. I’ve uploaded 3 HQ photos from this event to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2023 Appearances > [2023.05.24]Aston Martin DB12 Launch (HQ)

In Amazon Freevee’s runaway hit Jury Duty, James Marsden plays James Marsden. But he’s not the James Marsden who has earned himself a reputation as Hollywood’s jovial song-and-dance man and charm personified. No, this James Marsden is an asshole.

The series revolves around Ronald Gladden, a man who believes he is taking part in your run-of-the-mill documentary taking people behind the scenes of sitting on a jury. The catch, however, is that everything is entirely fake. The trial? Fake. The lawyers and judge? Fake. The jury of his peers, including James Marsden playing a satirical, egotistical of himself called up to do his civic duty like us regular schmoes? Fake. All that’s real is Ronald.

Everything in Ronald’s orbit has been orchestrated by a team of comedy writers and producers running proceedings like the epicentre of a NASA space station. While outlines of each episode were laid out for the players, the improvised scripts evolved in real-time as the action reacted to Ronald’s movements and decisions. The result is eight episodes of long-form improvisation that feel akin to watching train tracks getting laid as a carriage is speeding away. Miraculously, it’s pulled off to create one of the most original and, surprisingly, given the logline of the series, kind-hearted television conceits in years.

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