The treasure: Jason Ritter is one of the internet’s favourite people: a sunny soul who radiates good vibes, he hails from kindness royalty (he’s John’s son), is half of one of Hollywood’s most romantic marriages (his partner is fellow delight Melanie Lynskey), and has won accolades for his openness and honesty about his recovery journey.
The new thing: The “Parenthood” star has plied his trade in everything from “Drunk History” to the criminally underseen “The Tale;” now, he has a massive hit show to celebrate: Ritter co-stars alongside the great Kathy Bates in “Matlock,” the No. 1 new network show last year. And yes, season two of the ratings juggernaut will be especially juicy, Ritter-wise, given the revelations about his character in last season’s finale.
The details: “Matlock” premieres Sunday, October 12 on Global; it’s available to stream on STACKTV or the Global TV app.
What is the best lesson you got from Kathy Bates as a performer?
She is always so real. I mean, I know that that’s generally the goal of acting, but she’s so authentic in a way that you feel any lingering artifice in your performance. Sometimes you can get wrapped up in your own thoughts or you want to make sure it’s good, so you pre-plan, but she just has this ease about her that is contagious and this collaborative feeling that just forces you to be in the moment with her.
What do you wish your younger self knew?
I wish I had cared less about what people thought of me. I wish I felt less scared, less like I had to hide away certain aspects of my personality. I wish I had just been able to be free and be myself, but I guess that’s what teenagers are all about.
What is the best advice you ever got?
It’s gonna sound dark and sad, but it’s not: someone told me once to marry myself to failure. Because you can count on that happening. It sounds like you’re being pessimistic, but it’s more about not being afraid of the failure and making friends with it, and that every failure is an opportunity for a lesson.
What advice would you give everyone?
I saw this TikTok of Pete Holmes the other day, saying that he does this thing where he looks at everybody as another me, so he goes, “Oh, that me is doing really well,” and I loved that so much. So often people lose the simple thing that everybody is human and everybody deserves to be treated with kindness and empathy and people get so wrapped up in their own pain or their own insecurities that they treat other people horribly, so I just would hope that everybody could remember that. We are all in it together and a high tide raises all boats.
What makes you happiest these days?
My family, my wife and daughter, my extended family. I’m the happiest when I can make any of those people laugh really hard: not just like a giggle, but if I can get them to really laugh, that’s my favourite.
What gives you hope these days?
In the face of so much cruelty, for cruelty’s sake, in the world and on the internet, when I see someone doing something kind for somebody else without expecting anything in return just for the purpose of making that person’s day, that gives me hope: that people can still learn and come together and have empathy for each other.
What achievement are you proudest of today?
My journey giving up alcohol. I didn’t think I would be able to do it. I thought there was some things that were just wrong with me that could never be fixed and removing that element from my life has allowed me to work on some of the other things that have made my life easier and more manageable.
What is the skill many people might be surprised to discover you have?
I’m very good at video games.
What hobbies would you like to learn in the future?
I’d love to be able to play piano. My daughter’s starting to do it, so I’m like, “maybe I can look through this book while you’re not looking and start warming up the old fingers.”
In the 1998 Japanese film “After Life,” when people die, they don’t go to heaven, they go to a bureaucratic way station where they ask you for your happiest moment and then they recreate it for you to live in it forever. What moment from your life would you want to live in forever?
There was a moment where I was basically making a silly joke when my wife and daughter and I were all trying to go to sleep and I was making a silly sound, pretending it was from them and going, “excuse me, I’m just trying to sleep!” It was such a simple joke, but they were laughing, they both were laughing so hard and I couldn’t stop. I would have it go on forever. It’s purely an auditory memory, because the lights were out, but the sound of both of them laughing that hard is just the most beautiful sound in the world.
I love this series, like, I’m like actually learning things. That’s really good advice, about being married to failure.
Yeah, after I got that advice, I was thinking about it so much on the way home that I didn’t notice two guys come up to me with their faces covered from here to here (covers forehead and mouth).
Yeah, I was getting robbed!
