'Found' Star Mark-Paul Gosselaar Talks Playing a Character He's Never Played Before

Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been working hard for over 30 years and has played interesting characters on television and in movies. But in his latest project, the NBC series Found, the 49-year-old actor is playing someone who has a troubling past and present. PopCulture.com visited the Found set in Atlanta earlier this year and spoke to Gosselaar with a group of reporters. 

"I knew of [Found creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll]. I knew the shows that she was involved in, but I didn't know the scope of her written work," Gosselaar told PopCulture.com and the rest of the reporters. "And reading the script, I was like, this is a different take on a procedural. A case of a leak. But the component that I would fit into the backstory of it all. And so I was drawn to that. I was drawn to the fact that this is a character that I haven't played and the challenges that it would face to play this week in and week out, and having to put a lot of trust in NK and her writers to write it in a way that would continue to be challenging for me and not cross a line that sort of would feel cheap and sort of put in as an afterthought."

Gosselaar plays a man named Sir who is part of a crisis management team led by Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton). The team works to find the forgotten missing people, and we find out quickly why Sir is in the position he's in based on what the trailer shows. 

"I think she's woven the story so delicately week in and week out that every time we get a script, it's like for me it's what is Sir going to do next?" Gosselaar said about Carroll. "How is the relationship between Sir and Gabrielle going to expand? Then on top of it, I have to read the entire script and I generally do when I'm working on a project, but I have to read the entire script because the case pertains to Sir, even though he's in the basement, which is just a great way of combining a procedural with a thriller drama. It's just a great take. And so having read that for the first time I was drawn to it and the fact that they continued to pursue me with wanting to do it was just a nice compliment.

For Gosselaar, working on Found was an eye-opening experience as missing Black and Brown people not getting attention is an issue in the United States. "I was really unaware of that whole process," he said. "We're all privy to it because we do hear on the media certain people who get found and certain people who don't. And the show has kind of expanded my views on the whole process."

Gosselar and Hampton star in Found with Kelli Williams, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta and Karan Oberoi. The series premieres on Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC with new episodes airing every Tuesday.