James Marsden recalls lawyer praising his work during jury duty: 'I've loved everything you've done'

The verdict is in: James Marsden had quite the memorable experience while fulfilling his civic duty and serving as a juror in Los Angeles.

Speaking to PEOPLE about his new Amazon Freevee series Jury Duty, the actor revealed that during his one real-life stint in the jury box, a lawyer surprised him by praising his acting work in the middle of the trial.

"I just served once before and it was a bizarre experience because it was here in L.A., and I walked into the courtroom and there was a wall of headshots of actors who have served jury duty before — in a government building!" Marsden said. "I was thinking in my mind, 'Well, if anybody recognizes me, then maybe I would be a distraction.' I don't know. I wasn't really trying to get off jury duty."

Marsden added that ultimately, he was a distraction for one of the lawyers. "In the middle of an opening argument, he turned to me and he goes, 'And I've loved everything you've done,'" the actor recalled, adding that the trial was for "an eviction case or something."

Marsden joked that he almost tried to leave after that comment, but he remembered how "it was a courthouse with a wall full of headshots, so they're gonna love that."

Now streaming on Freevee, Jury Duty is a docu-style comedy that finds Marsen playing an exaggerated version of himself as a member of a jury.

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