James Marsden and Jon Hamm go head to head in the second season of the AppleTV+ series, “Your Friends & Neighbors.”
“He reached out to me before I signed on to the role,” Marsden, 52, exclusively told The Post.
The “Mad Men” star told him, “I just hope you have the best time” and, “I think I’m kind of jealous of your part.’”
Marsden joins “Your Friends & Neighbors” for Season 2 (premiering Friday, April 3 on AppleTV+). He plays Owen Ashe, a new character who likes to party and live large. He gets into a game of cat and mouse with Coop (Hamm).
The Emmy-nominated actor described Ashe as “nonstop energy” and “a larger than life persona.”
“It was exhausting to me,” Marsden said. “By the end of the day, I was ready to crash at the end of filming. But it’s a very rich, very juicy character to play.”
The dark comedy crime drama series follows Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a divorced and unemployed former hedge fund manager who secretly turns to a life of crime to keep himself and his ex-wife and teen kids in a wealthy lifestyle.
This often involves burgling his friends and neighbors, unbeknownst to them.
Amanda Peet plays his ex-wife, Mel, and Olivia Munn plays Samantha, Coop’s complicated on-again off-again relationship.
Although Hamm and Marsden seem like a natural fit — surely they’ve played brothers before — this show marks their first time working together onscreen.
“I’ve known Jon for a while, so that made it easier,” Marsden said.
“The Notebook” actor described Hamm as, “just one of those actors that I would see at events going on in Hollywood.”
“He was always a good hang. I would just come find him and we’d have a drink and good chat,” Marsden told The Post, adding that Hamm is a “very funny guy,” with a “sharp sense of humor.”
Offscreen, the two actors have also been involved in the same Fantasy Football League, “competing against each other” and “trash talking nonstop.”
Because Coop lives in the fictional affluent community of Westmont Village (in Westchester County, New York), everyone lives in mansions and drives sports cars – which proved to be a challenge for the “Paradise” actor.
“I was worried about crashing one of the cars. These are like three million-dollar cars [that my character] drives,” Marsden explained.
“That was a big concern. I was driving a Porsche 918 Spyder, which is like my dream car. And I was like, ‘don’t be a fool with this!’”
While some might see Ashe as an arrogant character, Marsden said, “I don’t think he is. I think he’s just very genuine and honest and very direct.”
He added that when Ashe moves to town, he is “fascinated” by Samantha.
“She’s one of the only people in town that doesn’t seem like she’s putting on a show” and “takes ownership” of her past mistakes, he said. “[Ashe is] one of these people that believes that mistakes are what gives a human being their dimension and makes them interesting.”
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