*Since retiring from the NFL, Marshawn Lynch has stayed busy with his charitable endeavors, business ventures, and acting projects.
Lynch’s post-retirement life has seen him appear in commercials for Subway, Frito-Lay and Uber Eats, and TV shows including season three of HBO’s “Westworld.”
Lynch is back at showing off his acting (and improv) skills in Netflix’s new murder mystery comedy “Murderville,” which is now streaming on the platform.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, here’s the conceit: Will Arnett plays homicide detective Terry Seattle. Arnett — along with the cast of other regulars including Haneefah Wood as Seattle’s boss slash ex-wife, Chief Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle, and Lilan Bowden as coroner Amber Kang — gets a script. Each episode, a guest star “trainee” is paired with Seattle and tasked with helping him solve a grisly murder. They do not get a script, and must react to Seattle’s prompts as they interrogate three suspects and examine the crime scene for clues, culminating in a lineup where they guess whodunit. It’s like one of those murder mystery dinner party games where the host is Lego Batman.
Of the six guest stars, Lynch is the only one who is not a trained actor, comedian or actor-comedian. Lynch dished with THR about stepping outside his comfort zone through small screen acting gigs such as “Murderville.” Check out excerpts from the conversation below.
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I read that both you and Conan were among the celebrity guest stars on Murderville and figured, “Oh, Conan must have got Marshawn involved in this.” But how did you actually get hooked up with this project?
I mean, although I fuck with Conan, and I’m not one hundred percent sure that he didn’t put me on, I think it was my guys over at WME who actually put that together.
Had you ever done improv before?
Not on that level. But, shit, I did enjoy it like a motherfucker.
So from the time you found out like, “Hey, there’s this show, it’s like a murder mystery improv,” and you said yes, how long was it until you were actually on the set doing it?
I’d say it was probably like a month, month and a half out that they put it on my radar. And then, you know, by the time I seen what type of situation it was, it was already on my front doorstep, so, you know, it was just go time!
The intro to the show says the trainees don’t know what’s going on, but how did it work? From when you showed up to the studio until the camera was rolling, what type of instructions did you get?
If you look at the roster, there’s some pretty heavy hitters. And they know I’m probably the greenest out of everybody. This is what they’ll tell you: “This is the direction we’re going in,” and kind of, “Follow the lead”-type shit, and it’s like, “All right, but what lead is that?” And it’s like, “Oh, well, once we call action, you’ll get it” — like, what the fuck?! (Laughs.)
You also recently did Westworld, which is kind of a similar jump in the deep end, right? Your first time as a dramatic actor, and, “I’m just going to go ahead and be on Westworld, on HBO, in a recurring role.” So, similar question: How did that opportunity come about?
What happened was, I started a production company. And I came down and met with WME. And they were actually like, “Would you like acting roles?” and blahzay blahzay, and I was like, “Yeah, man” — and I was just fucking around — I told ’em, “Yeah, I want to act some.” And they were like, “OK! What kind of role are you looking into?” I told ’em, “Well, I don’t want to talk too much. I want to blow shit up. I want to shoot shit. Basically, I just want to fuck shit up.”
Yeah. Of course.
And I ain’t gonna lie. Probably within, like, three days, [WME agents] Adam [Harris] and Braden [Currier] had called me back like, “Hey, we got a role for you,” and I’m like, “You serious?” “Yeah. Oh, it’s on Westworld.” I’m like, “Are you fucking kidding me?” “Nah, I’m serious. We got a role for you on Westworld,” and I’m like, “Well shit. All right.” So Lisa [Joy, Westworld co-showrunner] called me and gave me the rundown on the character that I was playing. And I’m just like, “Aw nah, this shit is really happening. I better be careful with what I go in there talking to these dudes [at the agency] about because they’re making shit happen right now.”
So, after I talked to Lisa, it was basically like, “Oh, yeah, you got to come to set tomorrow,” right? “Oh, like that?!” (Laughs.) “OK, cool. All good. We’ll make it happen.” But, on that set? You talk about heavy hitters, you feel me? All of them know me from my previous career and where I was coming from. Everybody on set was, I mean, they was raw as fuck. They were all professionals, they all knew what they were doing. So, you know, them just catching me up to speed and giving me the lay of the land on what was going on, certain things I should and shouldn’t do. But at the end of the day, they all took care of me.
So you’ve done the improv comedy. You got the scripted comedy with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Got prestige drama out of the way. You got survival reality, right? You’ve done motion capture and voice work in video games. What have you not done that you want to do?
When I got into it, it was more so just to have fun. I’d really say it was like experiencing some shit that I never experience before, which was acting on the screen, you know, and really just playing out childhood dreams. Like I think about when I was a youth, I’m like, “Oh, that shit would look fun to do. Oh man, if I was in that, I would do something like this or something like that.” So now I’m in a position where If I just think it or speak it into existence, that shit will kinda happen. I like to have fun, but at the same time I’m not looking at the acting like, “Oh, it’s challenging. I want a challenge,” this, that and the third. Nah. Fuck that. If it’s something that it looks like I’ll enjoy doing it, then yeah I’ll rock like that.
Read Marshawn’s full THR interview here.
