James Marsden is indeed human. He just plays a robot on TV.
But being an actor can sometimes feel a lot like being a sentient host from the HBO show "Westworld," in which he plays the wholesome cowboy host Teddy Flood, he said.
"You go to work. You're programmed," Marsden said in an interview on ABC News' "Popcorn With Peter Travers." "You're given a narrative, given these lines. You yell action. You start. You stop. You reset. You do it again."
"Westworld," which is in its second season, takes on the debate of what it means to be human and what happens when man-made robots rise up against the humans.
"The robots on the show are more human in many ways than the humans are," Marsden said. "And we explore what it means to be human. We're holding a big mirror to ourselves. And Season 2 is a further exploration of that."
His own character, Teddy, spent much of Season 1 "dying."
"He's a walking bag of bullets in the first season," Marsden joked. "It'll be interesting because this time it might be a little more difficult to get stitched up."
With the show's violence and deaths, things can quickly get serious on set. So keeping things lighthearted during shooting is a vital and "necessary part of the process," Marsden said.
"Obviously, Evan Rachel Wood and I spend a lot of time together, and we do everything we can to lighten things up," he said. "Many, many times the show turns into a musical on set."
(MORE: 2018 summer movies: 17 flicks to know about) (MORE: 'Avengers: Infinity War' star Sebastian Stan regrets not letting his mom in on a big Marvel 'secret')Musicals are very much a part of Marsden's career and how he became an actor. Before he made his way to Hollywood, Marsden got his start while growing up in Oklahoma.
"I did some local modeling in Oklahoma City, which was in the Sunday paper," Marsden said. "I don't know if you can call it modeling … whatever, I was getting paid to stand there."
He discovered theater, appearing in plays and musicals, and was drawn to the thought of being characters that weren't necessarily "you."
Eventually, he took a chance on moving to California.
"I was just young, naïve and confident enough to think, 'Why not move to Hollywood and give this a crack?'" he said. "When you're young and dumb and arrogant and confident enough, you're like -- there's nowhere for you to fall."
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One of the reasons he got into acting in high school was because, to his classmates and friends growing up, Marsden was known for his impressions of famous people.
"I would memorize Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy standup and have it down pat," he recalled. "I would memorize old [Saturday Night Live] sketches with [John] Belushi and Bill Murray. And I would go to school and I would do these bits to people."
It's because of this skill that Marsden says he sometimes identifies more with mimicry than acting.
But with his roles in movies "Enchanted," as Prince Edward, and "Hairspray," as Corny Collins, Marsden was able to take comedic roles and turn them into honest, genuine human characters.
"I always thought that with comedy, the way to approach it is as if it's a drama," he explained. "You can't be letting the audience in on the joke. You can't be letting them know that you know it's a joke."
He continued, "There have to be real stakes. And that's where the funny stuff comes, I guess."
Watch the full interview with James Marsden and Peter Travers in the video above.
