Here, series creator Liz Feldman breaks down how she devised and executed Marsden’s unexpected return.
James Marsdenwas never supposed to come back for season 2 ofDead to Me.
The actor accepted his fate with a warm email to series creator Liz Feldman.
Credit: SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX
“He’s like, ‘Seriously, if there was any way to come back, I would.’
But he knew that it was a total long shot.”
He was joking, but the email got Feldman’s wheels turning.
Was there a way to bring back this actor whom she and the entire cast adored working with?
“I had never considered that he’d want to come back.
And we always planned on Steve being a one-season character,” she explains.
We just started laughing because it’s so stupid.
We knew what a trope it was, and [could be] a bad soap opera.
I also thought it would be so fun to see James play a totally different character."
All of the above?
LIZ FELDMAN:I called him a couple of weeks later and he just laughed when I told him.
I said, “How would you feel about playing a twin?”
And he was in.
I’m so grateful that he’s so game to take a risk like that.
Was it about wanting to make him as completely different from Steve as possible?
I wanted to challenge myself and the writers and him to come up with a completely different person.
The truth is [James] is the inspiration for Ben.
Because in real life, James Marsden is a sweetheart.
He is truly a wonderful human being.
I thought Ben should be much, much closer to James.
Ben is an alcoholic, which James is not.
But in his heart and soul, Ben is a good man as James.
I thought it would be interesting to see him play somebody closer to who he really is.
He was the inspiration for thatjust wanting to lean into James as his dorkier, wholesome self.
He developed a total physicality for Ben, and he does gesticulate differently as Ben.
He did a really incredible and subtle job of being a totally different person.
In terms of the looks of both, Steve is so slick and perfectly clothed and wears expensive suits.
Where did you come up with Ben’s look?
His hair is a lot looser.
He just feels softer all the way around.
That hand gesture is a little bit more like Steve."
So I did run in and be like, “Hey, that was a little too Steve.”
He just wants to do as good of a job as possible.
He wants to get it right.
And he, 99.9 percent of the time, nailed it as Ben.
It was literally one time I was like, “That was too Steve.”
Do you remember which scene that was?
It was the scene in episode 5 where he dances for Jen.
Just slightly a tinge full of himself.
We just had him pull back on that line, and it was all Ben from there.
How did you figure out how to pitch that, tone-wise, and where exactly to place the reveal?
It took a lot of thought in terms of how to ride that tonal line.
It’s Netflix and you know you want a juicy cliffhanger.
What’s juicier than that?
It made me laugh every time I thought about it.
Then we knew Ben would be picking up right where we left off in episode 2.
“Who the f— is Ben?”
“I’m the f— is Ben.”
She’s just absolutely brilliant.
They’re all brilliant in that scene.
I thought a lot about how people become who they are.
Especially when they have siblings.
I thought, “Well, what if Steve was abusive in the womb?”
He took more nutrients.
I know this is kind of weird.
But basically, then Ben comes out and he has a heart defect.
Knowing that Ben was going to have setbacks and limitations because of his health issues.
What does that do to a young person?
How does that help shape their personality?
They both have scars, but Ben’s overall approach in the world is a bit softer than hers.
I thought that would be a really nice balance for her.
I guess I’m just a little bit twisted.
It was pretty immediate.
It was very immediate that I realized this could be a love interest for Jen.
I intended that to be an emotional breakdown.
What I did not know was how funny Marsden was going to make it.
It was incredibly delightful and unexpected, but also nuanced.
To me, that scene just shows you how brilliant James Marsden really is.
Did that come from James' background as a song-and-dance man?
And that it would also hit Jen in a soft spot because she’s a dancer too.
We were like, “How do we show the complete range of James Marsden?”
I guess that’s candy for straight ladies.
That one for sure stands out.
I did not expect, nor would was it even really written, that he cry in the scene.
Can you tease what we might see of either Ben or Steve in season 3?
