Anthony Norman Reveals What the Show Left Out

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the finale of “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat,” now streaming on Prime Video.

Anthony Norman, a 26-year-old father from Nashville, can finally update his résumé with a particularly odd job from more than a year ago. After previously working as a valet, he was a temporary assistant at a family-owned hot sauce company called Rockin’ Grandmas — but he was the only real employee.

Just as in Prime Video’s 2023 comedy hit “Jury Duty,” Norman found himself as the oblivious main character of “Company Retreat.” In Season 1, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden became a near-household name as the unknowing star of a fictional court case and absurd panel of jurors. Now, Norman follows in his footsteps as the breakout star of the fake Rockin’ Grandmas company retreat in Season 2.

Hired as a temporary assistant, Norman flies from Tennessee to California to help Rockin’ Grandmas CEO Doug Womack (Jerry Hauck) throw one last retreat before he retires and gives the business to his son Dougie Womack Jr. (Alex Bonifer). However, just about everything goes wrong. Norman’s HR boss Kevin (Ryan Perez) surprises a co-worker with a proposal, gets rejected, abandons the retreat and leaves Norman as the de facto leader. Womack Jr.’s ascension to CEO is also derailed after his new hot sauce recipe uses Taco Bell ingredients and embarrasses everyone at a client luncheon.

Triukas Group, a shady corporate conglomerate, then swoops in to acquire Rockin’ Grandmas, but Norman and Womack Jr. uncover the company’s plan for layoffs in the penultimate episode. In the stirring conclusion, Norman bursts into the meeting room to stop Womack from signing the Triukas deal. With Rockin’ Grandmas saved, Norman is hailed as a hero — and then the truth about the show is finally revealed. The actors drop their roles, the hidden cameras come out and Norman’s mind is blown. The final episode unpacks the months of preparation that went into making “Company Retreat,” and Norman is given a $150,000 check.

Now, Norman can finally discuss his unbelievable time at Rockin’ Grandmas as the “Company Retreat” finale streams on Prime Video. With Variety, he talks about what didn’t make it onto the show, how one actor nearly slipped up and how his mom almost ruined the entire retreat.

Now that they know what really happened on the retreat, what does your family think about the show?

My mom was so excited. She actually came with me to the premiere, and within the first 10 minutes of the first episode, she was already crying. She’s happy about it. And then my dad, I can tell he’s happy about it, but he’s more of a hardass, if you will please excuse my language. He was just like, “OK, cool.” No “I’m proud of you,” but I can tell he’s happy. It’s a good mix of both tears of joy and from laughing. My mom and dad, more than anybody, can read my facial expressions. So they get a little bit of an inside scoop of what I might have been thinking in those moments.

You’ve been keeping the show a secret for over a year. When did you tell your parents about it, and what was their reaction?

I wanted to play it safe. As much as I love and trust my family, I just kept it to myself. I had to live life normal. If I did tell my parents, they might have expressed something to somebody else. My mom was like, “No way! Get out!” We hadn’t really seen the first season of “Jury Duty,” so that was the first thing that we jumped on. It also helped me explain what I was going through. So we sat down and watched it. I was pointing out characters like, “We have a character like this” and breaking down all the details and giving her some of the inside scoops.

Going back to the very beginning, what was the application process like? What kind of job did you think you were applying to?

With my schedule with my son, I have a week-off, week-on schedule, so I’ve always been on the lookout for little jobs or gigs that I could make work in my schedule. I applied to a temp company. I wasn’t applying to Rockin’ Grandma’s. I was expecting to go and work for a short amount of time, come back and just go back to looking for new jobs. I have a few jobs that I do consistently now, but I didn’t really expect too much to come out of it.

How many interviews did you do for it?

The first interview I had was with the temp company that I was hired through. I believe I actually had two interviews with them. A month later, I almost forgot about it, and they reached back out through email and were like, “We liked you. We would love to move forward in the interview process.” Then that’s when I had the first interview with Kevin — sorry, Ryan [Perez].

Is it hard to not mix up everyone’s real name and character name?

When it first ended, I told them, “Y’all are staying with your characters’ names.” But now I’ve had plenty of time to talk to them and keep up with them through social media. I got their names down now.

What do you think the interviewers saw in you that made them choose you for the job? Did they ask about what TV shows you watch or any of your interests in case you recognized the actors?

Honestly, I don’t know, because looking back at some of the interviews that they put on there, I’m like, “Why did they even pick me?” I kind of question it. I would like to say that I think I lead with being authentic and just being real. And I think they could see that. So I think that’s one of the things that they leaned on when they picked me. They definitely asked about some of the things that I’m interested in and things I do in my day-to-day life, but they never pried into what kind of TV I watch. They never said anything that might have tipped their hand at what they were looking for.

In the first episode, Marjorie gave you an opportunity to leave and not deal with the retreat. Did you ever wish you would’ve taken her offer?

To be honest, when they offered it, I kind of considered it just because the offer was on the table. But no, not really. Regardless of what happened, I knew I was showing up to do a job and I wanted to do the best that I could. So I really never had the thought to leave.

Did you have access to your phone at all during the retreat?

They actually used that as a seminar; basically they were doing a digital detox. But with that being said, I always did have access to my phone if I needed it. And then there was also a landline and an iPad in the computer lab, which I could always go in if I wanted to call home or FaceTime anybody. I always had that. But just carrying my phone around in my pocket everyday, I couldn’t do that.

Did you call anyone to tell them the crazy stuff that was happening?

Yes, several times I called home to my mom. It seemed just about every day I was just telling her, “You can’t even imagine what happened today.” My mom actually called it. She was like, “Something’s off. Something is weird about what’s going on out there.” One day she called the landline and I wasn’t available to pick up. She said she was so scared, she almost called the cops because I had sent her the address. Looking back, I’m like, “Mom, you could have blew the whole thing.” But it was her just being a worrying mom.

Did you ever google Rockin’ Grandmas or search for any of the characters’ social media while you were becoming friends with them?

No, not while I was there, because I didn’t really have the time. I guess I could have went in the computer lab and looked up their social media, but not really. I gave Dougie my phone number if they ever needed me to come back, because I was more than happy to because I genuinely was enjoying myself. I didn’t google Rockin’ Grandma’s, but when they sent me all the information about my hotel, I definitely called up there and asked if the room was under my name. If anything else, I needed to at least have a place to lay my head.

Is there anything you did on the retreat that didn’t make it into the show?

I’m a big baseball guy, they knew that, and they had wiffle ball stuff. I was actually able to get everybody to come and play wiffle ball with me, which meant a lot to me because if I hit up all my friends here in Nashville I could probably get two of them to come and play. It was so fun. There was a moment we were playing Uno, they caught a little bit of that. Alex [Bonifer] and Warren [Burke], after we did all our seminars at the end of the day, we had a big chess board and we would go sit out there talk and play chess. So just some of those moments where we’re really sitting down and getting to know each other is what I wish they would have put more in there.

Was there anything you noticed at the time that seemed odd and should’ve tipped you off to what was going on?

There was only one moment like that, and I didn’t really take it in. I don’t think they show it. One day was Warren’s birthday. I don’t know if it was actually his birthday or not, so one of my jobs was to go to the store and get anything they might need. With me knowing that it was his birthday, I got him a big chocolate cupcake with a candle. Later that same day, I was talking to Doug and telling him about the cupcake and he said, “Oh yeah, I got one of those cupcakes.” And I was like, “There was only one cupcake.” He said it as if I got a bunch of them, but in the moment, I was like, “I don’t know, maybe it was a misunderstanding.” But looking back, I’m like, “He slipped up!”

One of the biggest moments in the finale for me was when you stop Doug from signing the deal by talking to him “father to father.” We don’t learn much about your personal life in the show or that you have a child. Did you talk to the cast about that very much off-camera?

Definitely. It’s hard for me to not talk about my son. He’s my world. They knew all about my son. He’s 3.

So you’ll probably wait a few years before you have him watch the show?

He was at the premiere as well, but he’s not old enough to really understand what’s going on. But he thought it was cool. When he first saw me, he was like, “Dad, that’s you.”

Have you kept in touch with any of the actors since you finished filming?

Yeah, all of them. They’ve extended an open mind for any questions or anything that I might need. And on social media — with me being from Nashville and pretty much all of them being in L.A., it’s hard for us to really get together, but we’ve definitely been keeping up with each other. We had a dinner party almost immediately on the very last day of filming.

I saw that at the premiere you met Ronald Gladden from Season 1. Did you know who he was, and did you get a chance to talk and bond over what you both have been through?

They showed me a picture of Ronald almost immediately after all the cameras came out. He looked familiar, so I probably had just seen him around, but didn’t realize what he was from. It was real crazy. Have you seen the Spider-Man meme of them pointing at each other? At the premiere, we didn’t really have too much time to sit down and talk. There was so much going on. But after, we had a couple good phone conversations. Before I left town, we grabbed a drink and talked about what the future may hold for me and how he got to where he was at and some of the steps that he took.

Ronald starred in a commercial after “Jury Duty” and signed a deal with Amazon MGM. Do you want to do more TV in your future?

I’m not against it. I never grew up dreaming to be an actor or being on TV. But now that I have the opportunity, and it’s here, I’m open to everything. Whatever comes, I’m not necessarily saying that I’ll take everything, but if good opportunities come that I really like and I really resonate with, I’ll definitely jump in.

Reflecting on everything now, how do you view your time at the retreat and being part of the show?

Looking back, I’m grateful to be a part of the experience. I’m very proud and happy that I get to be a part of something so positive. A lot of the entertainment that we take in nowadays is not the healthiest, so to be a part of that is amazing. It’s funny, because I’m the youngest of three, so I was the kid always pulling pranks and joking and scaring people. So to be on the other side of it, especially in this manner, it’s a dream come true.

This interview has been edited and condensed.