‘Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat’: Anthony Norman on what’s next

Anthony Norman didn’t know he was on television when he ran full speed down a grassy slope in Agoura Hills, determined to stop a deal he believed would ravage the small hot sauce company, Rockin’ Grandmas, he’d joined only days earlier.

As a temp, he had no real title. He had no reason to believe the head of the business would listen. He went in anyway.

“Father to father,” he told owner Doug Womack Sr. (Jerry Hauck) that he overheard the buyer’s plans to get rid of all of its workers. When Womack asks Norman whether he’s telling the truth, he responds, “I go home in two days. I genuinely have no dog in this fight besides I care about y’all.”

Womack listens. And the temp saves the day.

While the scenario was pre-constructed, Norman’s lines were not. “You’re giving us way too much credit,” creator Lee Eisenberg says, regarding viewers who suspect Norman’s line were scripted. “I could never come up with ‘father to father.’ It took my breath away.”

That sincerity is the heart of “Company Retreat,” the second season of the hit quasi-reality comedy “Jury Duty.” The premise remains the same: Surround one real person with actors, build an entire world around them, and hope they respond with decency. But the second season was more ambitious.

The first installment revolved around solar contractor Ronald Gladden, who participated in a court case along with a preposterous group of actor-jurors sequestered together for the proceedings. The new season takes place at the fictional Oak Canyon Ranch Retreat, providing more areas for the cast — and thus more places for their unknowing star to roam.

The task required the writers to rehearse for months to map out contingencies and shape character arcs. During the actual filming of the show, they had to rewrite storylines on the fly as unexpected events took place. But the most difficult challenge was the fact that Norman didn’t know he was at the center of the production, so he had to be constantly baited.

“You have to create a scenario where there’s basically games where you’re bringing Anthony into it,” Eisenberg said. This was necessary because the “main character isn’t inherently active in every single scene.”

“You are on the edge of your seat all day long,” executive producer Anthony King added. “There’s so many times you’re like, ‘OK, he’s going to the kitchen. Everyone get ready. What’s he going to do? Why is he there? Are we set up?’ It’s tense all day long.”

To follow Norman’s every move, the set contained 46 cameras — most of them hidden — to capture over 4,600 hours of footage. To coordinate events in real time, the team used code words and hand signals. And because the storyline called for employees who already knew one another, actors had to memorize years of shared backstory in case Norman asked about their history.

The Rockin’ Grandmas staff is full of outsize characters: Jimmy Weber (Jim Woods), the warehouse manager whose misunderstanding of progressive ideals at times makes him more offensive; PJ Green (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur), a receptionist and snack influencer who periodically has segments with Norman trying out exotic nibbles; and Helen Schaffer (Stephanie Hodge), the company accountant who never holds her tongue.

Despite the fragile construction of “Company Retreat,” always at risk of being undone by a minor mistake or unforeseen circumstance, the series’ biggest miracle isn’t that the ruse is successful — it’s that Norman never shied away from giving pep talks, offering a helping hand and being a leader amid chaotic events. The CEO’s son Dougie Jr. (Alex Bonifer), who is set to become the next head of the company, has a penchant for self-sabotage. Norman frequently gives him positive words to keep him motivated.

Norman’s instinct to jump in didn’t come from nowhere. When asked how he became so self‑motivated, he pointed to his father.

“He was my coach a lot of the time,” Norman said. “He would tell me, if we were practicing or something, just jump in there. It’ll take you far.”

Behind the scenes of “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat.”

(Prime)

It did, even before he landed on the Prime Video series. Norman said he earned a baseball scholarship because he was the first player to step forward during a drill at a college camp. That same instinct shaped his entire journey on “Company Retreat.”

“He should be a Little League coach and be the greatest coach maybe in the history of the world,” Eisenberg said. “He just knows how to support people and prop them up and make them feel like the best versions of themselves … seeing Anthony kind of navigate this world and navigate these characters … and really understanding what it means to stand up for an underdog — that’s the special sauce. No pun intended.”

King says the chance to show the beauty of humanity was what drew him to the second season. “Season 1 was just full of kindness and warmth and people connecting who had no reason to connect,” he said. “The chance to do that on a grander scale on a deeper level in Season 2 was really exciting. There’s so few things in culture that are just all about showing warmth and humanity and connection.”

For his part, Norman doesn’t see himself as a hero. When asked what’s next, he didn’t mention Hollywood, or becoming an entertainment personality. Instead, he talked about home; he hopes to build a baseball field and facility in Nashville to give back to his community.

Although his future plans are returning home, he says the experience on the show caused him to see himself differently.

“The biggest change in my life is the ability to love myself. I feel like before this, maybe I didn’t love myself as much as I should have. I wasn’t as kind to myself as I was to others. This opportunity has allowed me to see the true me,” Norman says. “To see [myself] from the outside perspective is a good feeling.”