Night Court's Gilles Marini on Wendie Malick

NBC’s Night Court is about to get a massive boost from guest star Gilles Marini, whose character Rodrigo has swept Julianne off her feet. But in real life, it’s the other way around; the Days of Our Lives actor was thrilled to get the call to appear on the hit sitcom! Speaking with CBR before his appearance in the Jan. 21 episode, Marini revealed why he’s such a fan of Night Court and in particular, Wendie Malick.

Marini dished on working with Malick and original Night Court cast member John Larroquette in “The Jakeout,” in which Malick’s character Julianne is determined to prove she doesn’t have feelings for Dan Fielding. Rodrigo may have something to say about that! In addition, the Daredevil alum spoke about his experience on the Netflix series ahead of the character’s highly anticipated Disney+ return.

CBR: You’ve appeared in plenty of TV sitcoms and comedy-dramas over your career, including Modern Family and Devious Maids. What was it about the Night Court revival that appealed to you?

Gilles Marini: The writing was just so spectacular, when it comes down to creating someone that is a little bit open to do anything for anyone for a little bit of money. And partnering with Wendie Malick was the icing on the cake. The moment I heard they really want you for Night Court, to play with Wendie Malick, I lost it. I’m like, I don’t need to be paid. [Laughs.] This is amazing. It’s one of my favorite [people] in the world. And partnering with her one more time was amazing.

The whole plot of “The Jakeout” revolves around her character Julianne and her relationship with your character Rodrigo. So how did you bring your off-screen chemistry to that on-screen relationship?

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it’s always much easier to have a great relationship off-screen — then you can just play around when you’re filming. But with Wendie, you can see the difference. We were laughing at the table about something, and we’re hearing okay, we’ve got to go now, and we become these people, And this woman is such a different level of class when it comes to acting. I absolutely adore it. You can see the difference [in] the way she handles herself, and the way immediately makes everybody around say okay, now it’s game time.

I feel like it’s always like an acting crash course. You learn so much with Wendie. It doesn’t matter if you spend five minutes on set with her or five hours, you want to learn a lot of things with her. The [Night Court] cast was so easy to work with. It’s one of those jobs that you want to stay… [That] doesn’t happen all the time when you work. You’re happy to come in and out, but this is one of those shows that you really want to be part of, because the people are absolutely amazing. You’re happy to go to work. I was always earlier, I left later, It was a great time.

Yet it’s not just Wendie that you get to work with; the plot also means you share scenes with John Larroquette, who is a comedy icon. How would you describe what you learned from him?

John is so incredibly ready for everything. When John speaks, you know that he thought about it many times over. And he’s very, very good at what he does. Super-sweet man. We spent two days talking about everything and nothing and just being a normal human being, and I love that about the guy. He’s really serious. He’s this giant man who’s done so much. So it was really interesting for me to look up at someone that, you want to [be] like that when you get older.

What was your favorite scene from this episode of Night Court?

Actor Ryan Hansen wearing a grey sweater and blue print top on a purple background

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It is not even me in the scene. Ryan [Hansen] plays Jake… and Melissa [Rauch], of course, plays Abby. What I saw live was incredible. The dancing, the acting, the comedic timing — I was in awe by it. And everything they shot prior, I was there looking at it. It was very special and you could tell these are really good actors and they really know what they’re doing. I love that moment the most, when they start dancing. I think it’s one of the funniest episodes they had this [season]. I’m very excited to see it.

I really do love the show, and I hope that the network is going to give all the chance possible to keep it, because it’s my Tuesday love. I absolutely love [watching] this and it’s fun as hell. I want to see what’s up for a lot of storylines that they’re creating now and I’m really hoping for the show to live a long, long, long, long time more.

One of the quirks of your career is that when you’re not doing these big sitcoms like Night Court, you’ve done some pretty serious dramas, such as Teen Wolf and Netflix’s Daredevil. What’s the bigger challenge for you, comedy or drama?

Rodrigo (Gilles Marini) laughs with Julianne (Wendie Malick) as they sit at a table in Night Court — Image via NBC

Comedy is a hundred times harder than drama. I’m just going to say it. Not only for me, most people I know, the stand-up comedy will be the hardest and then comedy and then everything else, you know. But when you do comedy, you need to be so in the place of relaxation and you need to accept the openness of what can be funny and let it be.

I do love comedy because I realize that, especially when I did 2 Broke Girls, my accents and my ways are funny for Americans generally. So most producers, they realize, oh, we can use this world, this foundation. We make fun of this and that. So you just have to be sharp, and less is more in comedy. You’ve got to be super-honest.

You played Jacques Duchamps in Daredevil Season 2, Episode 10, “The Man in the Box.” What do you remember about stepping into that totally different character?

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When I want to just kill this beautiful woman. [Laughs.] Daredevil was something — it was very dark. It was not even light on set. When we were shooting Daredevil, I was saying, where do we put the lights? They had no lights on set and they were just like, don’t worry, editing will do it. And it gives that vibe of the show that is dangerous and dark, and I loved it.

Sometimes it’s all that flamboyance and comedy and next thing you know, you do something very deep and serious. And [it’s] the reason that we are actors. I love challenges and I embrace them… The moment I hear rolling, I don’t care what it is, but I will become that person and we love doing so. I cannot live without acting.

Night Court airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.