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[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Paradise.]

Summary

In the Hulu series ‘Paradise,’ a murder triggers a high-stakes investigation in an affluent community.
Actor James Marsden discusses his role as President Cal Bradford and the dynamic with Agent Xavier Collins.
Marsden praises the writing and working with Sterling K. Brown, expressing interest in returning for future seasons.

Created by Dan Fogelman (This Is Us), the Hulu original series Paradise is set in an almost idyllic community. But when Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) finds President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) dead on his bedroom floor, it triggers an investigation with the highest of stakes. Searching for answers and uncovering clues along the way is a threat to their carefully crafted existence, and when you threaten those in powerful positions things can quickly spiral, but Xavier is driven to find out what happened, even if it turns his own world upside down.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Marsden talked about how a conversation at the Emmy Awards led to his role in Paradise, why it’s daunting to have to be presidential, learning about a character through his past when you already know his fate, the dead body stand-in that filled in for him, the dynamic between Cal and Xavier, how working with Brown was a dream, and that he’d be willing to play a twin, just to be able to return for another season.

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Collider: I read that Dan Fogelman pulled you aside at last year’s Emmys and told you he had a role for you. How does that feel, as an actor, to have someone of his caliber write a role, think of you and approach you about it?

JAMES MARSDEN: I obviously knew who he was, and I’ve been an admirer of his work for a long time, so it was a nice feather in my cap. It was pretty cool. I listened because he’s one of these minds that you just wanna work with. You wanna be in their world. And so, I was very flattered when he sent me the script. He told me the basic premise that I’d be playing the president and, of course, I immediately got tensed up there. I was like, “Really? Me? The president?” But then, he explained to me how he was a bit different and unconventional, so I read the script and loved it. And he said, “Do you have any questions for me?” I said, “How close are we to this actually happening?” And he laughed and was like, “Well, maybe not so far off. I don’t know.”

I had always wanted to work with [Dan]. Sterling [K. Brown] is an incredible actor. I had worked with Julianne [Nicholson] years before on Ally McBeal, which was so different. It felt like what Westworld felt like when it was shaping up. There was chatter about it. There was talk of, “This is Dan’s next show. These are the people that are involved. This is a very exclusive thing to be a part of.” And then, when I read the scripts, it was reflected in the material, so I signed on immediately.

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Does it feel daunting to play a president? Do you have to just focus on the man and not the job title, or do you have to always keep that in mind?

MARSDEN: It’s daunting when you have to be presidential, but the safety net with this role is that Dan has always said Cal doesn’t really want to be president. He was forced into it, and he’s not afraid to lean into having a good time while he’s doing it. I do think he’s qualified and he’s capable. He’s a good communicator, and at the end of the day, he’s a man with character who will try to do the right thing when it comes down to it. He believes in himself, and he lets the nerds figure out the real strategic stuff, and then he makes the final decision of, “Okay, what does a good human do, or try to do, in this situation? Sometimes maybe it’s impossible to do everything good.” So, that wasn’t as daunting. I knew that we were not necessarily going to highlight the president so much behind the desk, but what he was like at home with his son and with Xavier, after hours, chatting and shooting the shit, and seeing the regrets that he carries and the things that he grapples with on a day-to-day basis. Getting to see the human side of the character was appealing to me, and it wasn’t as daunting as if I had to just be the president.

I don’t want to get specifically political about anything because that doesn’t really pertain to the story, but when you play a president, does it make you look at real-life politics and the presidency any differently? When you’re trying to put your character in context and you’re thinking about how being in that position would shape him and make him who he is, does it give you a different perspective on the job?

MARSDEN: Sure, it certainly made me want the job less. I’m not sure that I’d want that position, but if I had to take that position, I would definitely lean in Cal’s direction. I would want to rewrite the rule book on that. It’s silly that we hold certain standards for that position. These people are sometimes not allowed to be human beings. They’re supposed to be robots who have never smoked a joint in their life or whatever. It’s experience in life and mistakes and recognizing that we are fallible human beings that shape and form and mature a man or a woman into being in a place where they have reached a maturation level where they are capable of holding that position. So, I would actually wanna rewrite it and have a little more fun with the position if I were there. But it definitely didn’t really make me ever want that job.

Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) with President Bradford (James Marsden) and Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) standing behind him in Paradise

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When your character is dead in the first episode and that’s your starting point, what’s it like to figure out who he is through flashbacks? Does it feel different to find and understand a character when you know he can’t grow and evolve past a certain point in the future and you really only have his past to explore and understand him by?

MARSDEN: Great question. It makes everything feel way more concentrated because you know where the beginning is and where the end is. Everything can be more deliberate. You can find the places where he’s going to evolve and change. There’s a really beautiful arc that he goes through in the show. There are a lot of shifts inside of him as a human being trying to right his wrongs. You look at the timeline and you see where it all needs to take place, and it can be that much richer because of that. At some point, I think Cal is resigned to the idea that he might not make it. I don’t think he knows for sure that he isn’t going to. He’s not martyring himself. But there’s something that puts him on alarm and makes him go, “Because of what I’m doing here and because I’m releasing the truth, I am going to have a bounty on my head.” He wants to do everything possible that he can to write his wrongs before that potentially takes place.

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James Marsden as Cal Bradford standing in a t-shirt and robe in the Hulu series Paradise — Image via Hulu

Did you have to lie there for the scenes when your body is discovered? What is it like to shoot a death scene like that?

MARSDEN: They were very kind on this show. I don’t mind getting dirty. Bloody me up. I don’t care if I’m sticky and gross. It’s the holding your breath that’s the hard part, but they never made me go too long. They also shot around me with a really incredible reproduction of me. It was a fully, head-to-toe prosthetic James, lying there in a bathrobe. His name was Russell, and I was jealous of him. I’d show up on set and everyone would talk about how great it was when he was working, and I wasn’t. They used the mannequin version of me for a lot of it. It is a weird thing to be laying there, pretending to be dead, but I got used to that on Westworld. When I watch it, I know it’s all fake, but my kids probably don’t like it and they’re not going to enjoy this. It’s a strange thing. My mom was like, “Oh, do you die in it?” “Yeah.” “I’m not watching that.”

We really get to know your character better through his conversations and in his more intimate moments. Cal and Xavier have a lot of very personal conversations. What was it like to establish those relationships in a more personal way, whether it was with Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, or even Krys Marshall?

MARSDEN: When he’s around a group of people, he has to be very presidential. It’s that one-on-one connection that he really desires. That’s why he’s with Krys’ character. That’s why he desperately wants to connect with Xavier and have a pal to shoot the shit with and have a drink. He wants to watch a movie with his son and try to forge those bonds a bit more. But you also see the loneliness in his life. You see him unhappy and in a place in his life where he has a lot of regrets and wishes he had taken a left instead of a right. I think that’s also the human experience when you look back and think of where you screwed up and what you could have done differently. But then, you make a choice in your life to learn from that and change, rather than wallow in it. You see Cal doing that throughout the course of the show.

What was it like to have Sterling K. Brown to play those moments with? He seems like the kind of actor where it’s hard not to see the emotion on his face or in his eyes. What’s that like to work off of?

MARSDEN: It’s a dream. It really is. I know you listen to a lot of actors talking about how great it is to work with each other, but I’ve gotta say, his level of what he does, he can sit there and not say a word and it’s the most gripping thing you could watch, or he could give you heartbreak without a tear or an expression. You just feel him. He’s one of those people that just feels. The writing was so perfect and did most of our work for us. I understood the assignment, and he understood the assignment. When we got there, we just clicked and we got it. I knew what it was about, and so did he. We were not thinking about the scripts, at that point. We were thinking about the connection and the dynamic between these two people. The worst feeling as an actor on set is feeling like you have to muscle your way through a scene and to really force something to work. And with Sterling, he just comes in and caresses the scene with his presence, and it just makes it all so much easier. You just wanna be at his level. I think that’s why all the scenes with he and I just work so well. I was very lucky to be working with that man.

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The moment when Cal asks Xavier if he can forgive him for what happened, what kind of response do you think he was actually expecting in that moment? Can he ever actually truly forgive what happened?

MARSDEN: Just to play devil’s advocate, there is room there. You could argue that Cal did his best. It was an impossible situation and there were changing variables that happened along the way that made it impossible for him to keep his word. Does that negate the fact that Xavier lost his wife and feels that there was a promise made to him, and he feels betrayed? He’s absolutely entitled to feel everything he’s feeling. But when he asks if there’s any way to forgive him, I think what he’s asking is, “Will you ever be able to see that there was no malice in what I did and no deceit?” I think he really doesn’t think there was any deceit. I think he tried to do his best in a situation where he felt overwhelmed and maybe under-qualified, but I do think he loves Xavier and would do anything for him. At that moment, you saw him being not a perfect human being, and maybe that’s what he’s asking forgiveness for. Can you forgive me for not being a perfect human being? I don’t know. That’s the best I can make of it.

James Marsden Would Love To Find a Way to Be in More Seasons of ‘Paradise’

“I can see why ‘This Is Us’ worked so well.”

James Marsden as Cal Bradford in a Kentucky hoodie while on the treadmill in the Hulu series Paradise — Image via Hulu

What was your reaction the first time you read the finale script? How do you feel about the way everything wraps up and where it leaves things? Are you already asking for them to find a long lost twin of Cal’s?

MARSDEN: It was such a great group to work for. I had heard that Dan Fogelman does not populate his sets with anyone with egos, or anyone who’s unprofessional or unpleasant in any way. I was very happy to hear that because I try to do the same thing in my life. I wanna be around good feelings and good spirits and good people, so I was happy about that. So, the idea of doing this again is really appealing to me. The writing is off the charts. The acting company is brilliant. The crew and everybody is like a big family. I can see why This Is Us worked so well. He set that tone on set. It was a lot of the same crew from This Is Us, so you can tell how special of a man Dan is and what tone he sets on set. It was a really beautiful experience. You want every job to feel like this, so if it does continue, I’d go full Dead to Me and be a twin again. Maybe one of the 25,000 people who was allowed to stay can start cloning people. I’m gonna run this by Dan.