Found viewers should prepare to see a little less of Sir when Mark-Paul Gosselaar steps behind the camera and into the role of director on the hit NBC series.
“I started directing myself when I starred in Franklin & Bash over 10 years ago. The great thing about what I am doing is I continue to work as an actor,” Gosselaar, 51, shared in Us Weekly‘s exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse at the episode. “I was working on roles that still challenge me and I really liked the material that was being given so I didn’t make a full time switch to one side.”
Gosselaar noted that he “would jump on” any “opportunity to direct,” adding, “Playing Sir, I am not in every scene so this will be a good opportunity to fill that time. I get to direct my cast mates, which was a fun dynamic.”
Before the episode premiered on Thursday, April 3, Gosselaar spoke to Us about getting the chance to go behind the camera two seasons into playing Sir.
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“It just gives me more insight. It just happened that it was this particular episode but when you direct, you typically don’t want a very heavy acting episode,” he explained. “I was fortunate enough that I had just had my little scenes and I could focus more on the other stuff.”
Gosselaar highlighted how important it was for him to focus on the material, adding, “You have to do your homework when you direct one of our episodes because there are so many loose ends. Things that happened last season are either being wrapped up or expanding in the story so you really have to do your homework on our show.”
The synopsis for Thursday’s episode teases a new case that follows an “emotional father who takes drastic measures to find his missing son, causing Gabi to be caught in his crosshairs. M&A races against the clock to uncover the truth.” Gosselaar’s Sir still makes an appearance when “Margaret makes a shocking revelation” about his accomplice.
Found, which premiered in 2023, follows public relations specialist and crisis manager Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) and her team of associates as they work to find missing people who have been ignored or forgotten by law enforcement.
While Found primarily focuses on the cases themselves, it also centers around Gabi and Sir’s relationship. The NBC series introduced their dynamic with Gabi kidnapping Sir in the present timeline — as viewers learned from flashbacks about how Sir kidnapped Gabi when she was a teenager. Season 2 picked up after Sir escaped Gabi’s basement. In addition to Hampton and Gosselaar, Found stars Kelli Williams, Arlen Escarpeta, Brett Dalton and Gabrielle Walsh.
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“We have a really good cast and I think they’re always on their best behavior. The hardest thing for us — when I was directing — was probably not getting wrapped up in a conversation on set,” Gosselaar shared with Us. “Because we all really like each other and because we all get along really well with our crew and we’re all just a huge family. We could spend 12 hours of our day just talking, hanging out and we have to get work done.”
He added: “So sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that and we rely heavily on our [assistant directors] to kind of keep us in line. We have such limited time and we have super ambitious scripts. We have to be firing at all times and we do.”
Found airs on NBC Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET and new episodes are available the next day on Peacock.
