Mark Duplass reopens HBO’s ‘Room 104’ for its last season
To start the fourth and final season of “Room 104,” executive producer Mark Duplass finally decided to check into an acting role on it.
He’s also the director, writer and composer of the tale “The Murderer” as the HBO anthology series (also executive-produced by his brother Jay) launches its last round Friday, July 24. Duplass plays a long-absent music legend lured by several youths (including one played by Hari Nef ) for a private concert in the motel room where the show’s stories unfold ... and where those young fans discover the artist’s lyrics may be too autobiographical.
“We always thought, ‘Let’s save Mark in reserve, just in case an actor drops out,’ ” Duplass muses. “When we got to this season, we realized it probably would be our last, so I tried to create something I really wanted to do.” Duplass based it on a musician friend who declined the part, “but the story stuck with me. And that’s usually where the best stories come from.”
Duplass also wrote three other scripts for “Room 104’s” last season, ranging from an ancientwarrior musical to a story with the first several minutes enacted by action figures. Then, there’s one in which someone in a hamster costume haunts a young woman (played by Jillian Bell).
We couldn’t make that up, but Duplass could, and he’s grateful HBO has given “Room 104” four seasons: “When we started making it, it happened to coincide with Jay and I being done making ‘Togetherness’ (another HBO series). That was the epitome of our own togetherness personally and creatively, writing and directing every episode, and we were thinking it was time to open our circle of collaborators and tell different kinds of stories.”
With “Room 104’s” last telecasts also featuring such guests as Dave Bautista, Melissa Fumero (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) and Kevin McKidd (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Duplass is waiting to resume work on Season 2 of “The Morning Show,” the Apple TV+ series in which his character Chip lost his executive-producer job rather spectacularly. “To just be one cog in that rather large machine is wonderful,” typical multitasker Duplass attests. “I get to watch and learn, and my job is not only to be good but to give others what they need. It’s rewarding without being as stressful.”
Married to Katie Aselton, with whom he co-starred on the sitcom “The League,” Duplass has been a guest panelist lately on such tapedpre-pandemic ABC programs as “To Tell the Truth” and “Match Game.” He says, “I love doing that stuff! A friend who was a producer on one of the shows invited me on. And to be candid, they pay really well, and that’s money I can use for charity work. It’s a cool thing, on many fronts.”