James Marsden and a ‘circus of weirdos’ in prank comedy ‘Jury Duty’

James Marsden plays an obnoxious version of himself in “Jury Duty,” the new Amazon Freevee prank-comedy series that combines “The Office” and “The Truman Show” with a dash of “The Rehearsal” thrown in for good measure.

“Jury Duty” follows a fake court case, complete with bumbling lawyers and oddball members of the jury, with one catch: only one of the jurors — Ronald Gladden, a solar panel contractor from San Diego — is not in on the ruse. His fellow “jurors” include self-important actor James Marsden (as himself), who’s trying to get the judge to recognize him so he can be excused from the trial; Jeannie (Edy Modica) a retail associate and self-proclaimed “anarchist”; and Todd (David Brown), so obsessed with hydrating that he straps a water bottle to his body.

“I thought that would be a lot of fun to have the ability to send up Hollywood [and] entitled actors,” Marsden, 49, told The Post. “It’s in the same vein that Larry David plays Larry on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s an exaggerated version of myself. Of course [James Marsden] thinks he’s above any sort of civic duty that he has to do. He assumes that every conversation is uninteresting, unless it involves him. That’s a great set up, because when you see him fail, he just kind of collapses.”

The jurors talk to the camera, mockumentary-style, about their observations as the case progresses, while onscreen text informs viewers that all of these people are actors, and that the trial is a sham. 

“I am not an actor,” Gladden, 30, told The Post. “This was an ad that I came upon on Craigslist.” Gladden said he thought the trial was being filmed for public TV to explore the inner workings of the court system. 

“It was like a roller coaster. When I first met James [Marsden], I was doing everything I can not to fangirl, because I’m a fan of his work,” he said. “I think he’s hilarious. And then, I was like ‘Oh, this guy isn’t as cool as I thought.’ Towards the end, when I started believing that’s who James was, it broke my heart, I was like ‘Never meet your heroes!’

“So, when I found out it was all a front, it was like a huge sigh of relief.”

Marsden (“The Notebook,” “Enchanted,” “30 Rock,” and “Westworld”) said he would be “freaking out” if he was in Gladden’s position, because “I don’t even like surprise birthday parties.” 

“It was important to me that he knows that [our friendship] was real, because otherwise, you would feel duped at the cost of a laugh for a TV show,” he said. “And that’s not what this show was about. We’re surrounding him with this circus of weirdos, and seeing how he reacts. We want people to laugh, but not at him– you’re laughing at that jackass James Marsden. When we did the reveal, I was like ‘I can’t wait for him to discover that I’m not this pr–k!’” 

Marsden said that he’s had real experience doing jury duty about six or seven years ago. 

“I’ve done it one time before, here in LA. It was something small, [a] civil trial. I walked in and there was a wall of celebrity headshots, in a government building. I thought, ‘Well, sh-t, I’m not getting out of this, I’m going to get selected!’ And sure enough, I was,” he said. “And in the in the middle of his opening argument, one of the lawyers turned to me in the jury and goes, ‘By the way, I love everything you’ve done.’ In the middle of a court case!

“I turned to the judge kind of like, ‘You’re not gonna let me go?’ And he didn’t. I had to stay through the whole thing.

“It was a very Hollywood moment.”