James Marsden, the Hollywood A-Lister who has appeared in numerous blockbusters and beloved shows, once took part in a Truman Show style reality series.
The show involved a contestant being lied to for multiple weeks, with him not even realising he was on the show.
Some fans described what happened as the contestant in question being ‘gaslit’.
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Despite what may sound like a fairly cruel endeavour, the show is actually beloved, with viewers being full of praise for James Marsden and the contestant, a man named Ronald Gladden.
The show in question is called Jury Duty, and as far as Ronald knew at the start of filming, it was a small scale documentary that promised to show people what it was like to take part in Jury Service in the United States.
What he didn’t know however, is that everyone else, from the judge, to the bailiff, to the defendant, were all actors, and hidden cameras were everywhere.
This included James Marsden, who played a heightened version of himself on the show.
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It released on Amazon Freevee in 2023 and received a shockingly large degree of acclaim.
Jury Duty sits currently at an 8.2 on IMDb, with an 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for four Emmys, with James Marsden receiving a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
The rest of the jury was filled up with character actors and lesser known names who played characters, whilst James Marsden played a larger-than-life cocky version of himself.
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Fiona Sturges said in their review for the Financial Times: “With Ronald at the centre, what might have been an ethically dubious experiment and an exercise in extreme discomfort has turned out to be both funny and life-affirming.”
Though many viewers were full of praise for the show, others were less than keen on the concept.
In one discussion of the show on Reddit someone commented: "Lol he was literally being gaslit."
Another popular post on the subreddit r/television read: “Let me start by saying I binged the show in one afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Right up until the end.
“I don’t know what I expected but when the judge finally told Ronald the truth, the look on his face crushed me.
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“Suddenly I felt serious guilt for enjoying the first seven episodes. This man was deceived and lied to for weeks for no other reason than to entertain us."
The viewer described Ronald as being 'Truman Show-ed', adding: "The Truman Show was a warning about where reality TV was heading, not a goal for the entertainment industry to aim for.”
In an interview with NBC, Ronald said: "Any time I would seriously start to entertain the idea that this couldn't be real, I would almost start to question my own sanity.
"Am I actually going crazy, or does it make more sense that I'm just surrounded by some weird people doing weird stuff?
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"Everything being fake and me being the centre of attention, especially when you have James Marsden there, is such a ludicrous thing to think."
He added in an interview with TV Guide: "After everything was revealed and then after I came home for the weekend, I started getting paranoid.
"I started freaking out and I was like, 'I feel like I'm being followed.'"
Gladden spoke to People magazine after the show saying that, though he has now wrapped his head around it, it took ‘months for me to come to the realization that this actually happened and to accept it.’
He also added that, after struggling with knowing what was and wasn’t real and if he was still on the show once filming stopped, he texted James Marsden for reassurance.
He told SiriusXM: “James [Marsden] just being the wonderful human being he is doesn’t write me back at all, he calls me instantly, we talk for thirty, forty-five minutes and he ultimately helped work through these feelings, he assured me there were no cameras which really really helped.”
Jury Duty is available to stream on Amazon Freevee now.
Topics: Mental Health, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin