Nashville’s a wondrous oasis for many entertainment industry insiders, at least compared to L.A. or New York, and plenty of non-country entertainers call Tennessee home these days. Actor James Marsden and his wife Lisa Linde have recently relocated to Music City, joining the burgeoning Hollywood A-list here. They made the move last July, and they’re currently renovating a home in the Green Hills area. Linde—best known as Ali McIntyre on Days of Our Lives—is the daughter of legendary country songwriter Dennis Linde (he wrote Elvis’s “Burning Love”). Much of her family still resides in Mount Juliet, where she grew up—so Nashville is definitely home turf for her.
Being with family (they have two children—Jack, 8 and Mary, 3) is one of the main reasons the Marsdens opted to move to Nashville . The other reason, Marsden explains, is that most films are shot on location, rather than in Los Angeles. He feels his career now allows him the freedom to live in Nashville, visit L.A. frequently and shoot on location as needed. Marsden—known to his friends and family as Jimmy—says Nashville reminds him of Stillwater, Okla., the town in which he grew up as one of five siblings (he’s got two sisters and two brothers).
After high school, Marsden attended Oklahoma State University, majoring in broadcast journalism for three semesters before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. With supportive parents, he gave himself a year to make it in the entertainment business, but it didn’t take that long. A friend of his father’s was a well-known Hollywood casting agent, and he took immediate interest in James, quickly sending him out on numerous auditions. He quickly landed his first real role on the pilot episode of The Nanny, as the boyfriend of Fran Drescher’s teenage charge Maggie, played by Nicholle Tom.
More memorably, Marsden caught the attention of Ally McBeal fans in 2001, when he joined the cast during the show’s fifth season and even showcased his singing abilities. Cementing a solid reputation are recent romantic characterizations including his iconic turn as Lou Hammond, Jr., in The Notebook—based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks—along side Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams and a romantic-comic role in 27 Dresses opposite Katherine Heigl.
But it was Marsden’s portrayal of Marvel Comics’ mutant hero Cyclops in the X-Men movies, partnering with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart that catapulted him to true stardom. In 2006, he played Lois Lane’s non-super fiancé in Superman Returns. His fresh take on a role Shawn Thompson originated—Corny Collins, a Dick Clark clone—in the film Hairspray showed off his singing bona fides. He used them again to brilliant and hilarious effect in Disney’s Enchanted, playing Prince Edward in a live action re-exploration of the fairy tale genre the Disney company is famous for. And 2009 has begun with a busy schedule for Marsden, completing the lead male role in the upcoming horror film The Box, starring opposite Cameron Diaz, a work based on a story by Richard Matheson.
Marsden says he’s most proud of his work in the upcoming film Nailed, co-starring Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tracy Morgan. The film is a political satire about a naive, small-town waitress who accidentally gets a nail buried in her head, causing erratic and outrageous behavior that leads her to D.C., where she falls for a dashing, but clueless, congressman—who in turn searches for the courage to save her.
With his diverse background, Marsden says he wants to continue to find unexpected, challenging roles. He doesn’t want to be defined by one character, but by his versatility. “I think one of the most challenging roles to play is a character that’s close to yourself,” he says. “It’s easy to dress up in costumes. But when you’re playing a role that’s just an average guy, it can be more complicated and challenging.”
Although he’s enjoyed singing for Hairspray and Enchanted, Marsden says he won’t be crossing over for a recording career any time soon. Luckily for his musical tastes, he’s a fan of country music—he formed a country cover band as teenager, playing guitar and singing lead vocals. He admits Garth Brooks’ smash hit The Dance was one of his signature covers, along with favorites by Alabama and Alan Jackson. He says he recently ran into Jackson and got to tell him about his teen history covering Jackson’s songs. Marsden says one of the reasons he likes living in Nashville is periodic chance meetings with local music celebrities and athletes in the casual settings the city is famous for providing.
He’s joined a running group in East Nashville, and he really enjoys exploring the different parks and restaurants the city has to offer. A big fan of Percy Warner Park, he periodically takes the family to the green space for an afternoon, if he’s not running the trails. The local restaurant scene offers lots of appeal for the family, and some of Marsden’s favorite places to dine are City House, Germantown Café, The Cupcake Collection, Zoe’s Kitchen, La Paz and Café Margot—clearly his culinary tastes are in tune with the city’s.
With all his success, Marsden remains grounded, dedicated to family and involved in charitable causes near to his heart. The Marsdens and the Linde family recently hosted a charity event honoring the late Dennis Linde, who died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2006. Music fans will recognize Linde for the songs he wrote, including “John Deere Green,” “Goodbye Earl,” “What’ll You Do About Me” and “Callin’ Baton Rouge.” The event, “A Night of Burnin’ Love”—named for Linde’s hit for Elvis—raised both funds and awareness for pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that currently afflicts 128,000 Americans and has no known cause, no FDA-approved treatment and no cure.
Now that he’s settled in, Marsden is enjoying what Nashville has to offer and living in the best of all possible worlds as he travels between Los Angeles, film locations and Tennessee. With a great attitude and good head on his shoulders, not to mention a great family life, there’s definitely a bright future for one of Nashville’s newest celebrity residents.