Sweet, goofy, and utterly charming – Jason Ritter is a rising star on CBS’s critically acclaimed, yet surprisingly under-watched sitcom, The Class. We spoke with him on the phone from his house in L.A. about the show, working with Fred Durst, Joan of Arcadia, and flying squirrels.
How did you get involved with The Class?
I was in New York doing a play [when] I got the script and it was really funny. I auditioned once in New York, came back out to L.A. and auditioned three more times. That was it.
How would your fellow Class-mates describe you?
Like an annoying little brother. I try to do pranks on them, but I give them up so immediately. A couple episodes ago, I had one line on a phone call to Lizzy [Caplan]…I was trying to say as many inappropriate things I could think of to get her to smile, but she's a total pro.
That leads me to the question everyone wants answered: When are your character and Lizzy’s going to get it on?
They’re drawing this out as long as they possibly can, but I hope they don't drag it out too long. It's interesting; Kat and Ethan haven’t quite admitted it to themselves that they have an attraction to the other person. It's going to take a while, I think.
Besides Ethan and Kat, do you have a favorite character?
I really, really like Lucy [Punch]'s character, because she's so uptight. Lucy isn't like that at all, but when she does Holly, it's so completely accurate to people who are uptight like that. They care so much about what people think that they have such a high concept of who they are. They think they have it all together.
Let's talk about Joan of Arcadia. You played a high school senior whose life was dramatically changed by a drunk driving accident – the result being your character becoming a wheelchair-bound paraplegic. I was wondering how you got into character.
I talked to a couple of guys who had been in similar accidents and had similar injuries. I got to ask them everything without being shy or embarrassed. Both [of them] were really open.
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