Marcus Rosner Talks ‘UnREAL’ Season 3 [Exclusive Interview]

Lifetime’s UnREAL returns for Season 3 this month, and it’s switching things up by giving Everlasting its first ever female suitor, Serena. Serena will get the chance to meet several eligible bachelors, including a cowboy named Warren, played by Marcus Rosner.

I had a few questions for Rosner about his role on UnREAL and the upcoming season.

Tell-Tale TV: When did you decide to become an actor, and what led you to that decision?

Rosner: About a week after I graduated from high school, my Mom took me to New York City as a graduation present and we saw some Broadway productions.

That was the first time I ever considered pursuing any type of performing art. I had been a major jock growing up and had never really been encouraged to try drama. When I got home to Sherwood Park, Alberta, I googled the closest film school, which turned out to be Vancouver Film School, and enrolled and moved out there. The rest is history, as they say.

Tell-Tale TV: What would you say is your most memorable audition story?

Rosner: I have a good one for this. Two years ago, I was leaving LA after spending some time there auditioning for pilot season and was heading to Toronto because I needed to be there for a couple of months. I brought my car down with me from Vancouver, and I decided it would be a good plan to just make the drive from Southern California across the states and up to Toronto.

I left at noon on a Wednesday and drove straight through the night because I was feeling good. By the afternoon on Thursday, I was completely exhausted to the point of delirium and decided that whatever major city was next, I would get a motel room and hunker down for the night.

As I’m rolling into Omaha, Nebraska at 6:00 pm that night I began searching for a motel when I got a call from my agent telling me that casting was requesting I self-tape an audition for this great part in this great new show, and it’s due by morning.

At this point, I haven’t slept in two days, I don’t have any camera equipment with me, and I’m all alone with no reader to help me tape. But I’m not going to miss this opportunity, so I find a motel, book a room, race over to three different Best Buys looking for the right camera equipment, head back to the motel and start learning the lines off my cell phone before I pass out from exhaustion.

In the morning I had my friend Skype in on my laptop, which I placed on top of a stack of suitcases so it was eye level and had him read the lines with me after I set up all the camera equipment and taped myself. I had even gone to Wal-Mart to buy a toy gun to use as a prop in the scene. I was still editing and emailing my tape when the cleaners came in to kick me out. I took the camera equipment back to Best Buy, returned it, and hit the road to continue my journey.

Tell-Tale TV: What made you want to be a part of UnREAL?

Rosner: I love shows that pull the curtain back on the entertainment industry, and this show does that about as well as any show ever has, in my opinion. It shines a light on what goes on with these so-called reality shows and puts on display just how manipulated the storylines actually are. That concept alone made me want to be part of the story.

Tell-Tale TV: You play one of the bachelors on the upcoming season — a cowboy named Warren. What else can you tell us about your character?

Rosner: Warren is just a good old boy from Texas. His Mother is sick and before she may pass he wants to make her happy and find someone to settle down with, so he heads to California to be on Everlasting and hopefully find his match.

He is probably one of the few conservatives on the cast, and that makes it a little difficult for him to fit in. He ultimately develops some strong relationships, but not necessarily with whom he expected.

Tell-Tale TV: What was the biggest challenge for you in playing this character?

Rosner: He has an accent that I’ve never done, so I had to learn that, but learning the harmonica took the most time. The original audition scene had Warren playing a little riff as he tried to woo the suitress, so I sat in my hotel room in Victoria, BC where I was on a shoot and spent the weekend teaching myself to play this $8 harmonica with YouTube videos. I nailed it in the audition tape and then kept honing my skills after I got the part.

Unfortunately, when I showed up for the first day, they decided Warren didn’t need to play Harmonica anymore. I was disappointed, but it gives me a good laugh and makes a decent story now.

Tell-Tale TV: What else can you say about what we can expect from UnREAL Season 3?

Rosner: Testosterone and Spray Tans.

Tell-Tale TV: Is there something you could share that fans might be surprised to learn about UnREAL?

Rosner: I don’t know how surprising this will be to viewers, but for this show, they would have two distinct types of shots while filming that they would call Everlasting and UnREAL, which I found so interesting. The Everlasting shots showed only what the cameras would see on the actual reality show within our show. So you would see the suitors, the suitress, and the host but never Quinn or Rachel or AD Dan, etc.

These shots would be used in the show when they are in the control room watching on the monitors. The UnREAL shots, for which I believe they used different lenses for, would have everyone in them; cast, producers, and background performers playing everything from makeup artists doing touch-ups to fake cameramen and sound technicians.

There were plenty of times when I honestly didn’t know the difference between the extras playing crew members and the actual crew members.

Tell-Tale TV: Have you ever watched The Bachelor or The Bachelorette?

Rosner: I did watch one season, actually. I can’t remember the Bachelor’s name that season, but it was years ago. The funny thing about these shows is that from the outside looking in, it’s really easy to be cynical about the content, but then you watch a few episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or The Bachelor and against your better judgment, you get hooked. They may be ridiculous people leading ridiculous lives, but they’re still people and there will always be something to relate to.

Tell-Tale TV: Do you have a current favorite TV series? If so, what is it?

Rosner: Atlanta. That show is incredible. Real, funny, and unpredictable. Not to mention unbelievable performances. Lakeith Stanfield is one of the best actors out there, and Donald Glover may be the most talented and versatile guy in show business right now.

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Be sure to catch Marcus Rosner on UnREAL when it returns to Lifetime for Season 3 on February 26th.

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