Night Court Guest Star Rhys Darby On His Character’s Romance With Gurgs & The Key To Success

Warning: SPOILERS for Night Court season 2, episode 12.Night Court season 2 episode 12, “The Duke’s a Hazard,” lives up to its name and sees Gurgs’ royal love interest visit Manhattan. Portrayed by Rhys Darby, Duke Alistair attempts to learn the ways of a commoner after realizing that Gurgs enjoys more fundamental activities. Darby has been featured in over one hundred projects and has several writing credits. He is most well-known for titles such as Yes Man, What We Do in the Shadows, and Our Flag Means Death.

As a long-time fan of Reinhold Weege’s original series, the actor was enthusiastic about the opportunity to work on Night Court. Lacretta and the rest of the cast graciously welcomed him to the show and ensured he had a positive experience. The episode ends with Alistair and Gurg’s relationship stronger than ever, leaving the door open for Darby to appear in upcoming Night Court installments.

Rhys Darby chats with Screen Rant about Alistair’s romance with Gurgs, working with Melissa Rauch, and whether his character could return to Night Court.

Rhys Darby Was Excited To Play Gurgs’ Love Interest

Screen Rant: Anytime someone guest stars in Night Court, I always have to know if they’re a fan of the original series.

Rhys Darby: Yes, definitely. That’s certainly one of the reasons I did it. We had that show in New Zealand, where I was brought up. It was on in the evening, and I have fond memories of being a young kid, 10 years old, 12 years old, and watching it with my mother. I lived alone with my mom. My other siblings were much older, and they were gone, moved on with their lives. Some of them were married and stuff. I was the baby.

I have fond memories of watching many comedies with my mom. She’s passed away now, but we had a really good comedic relationship where we would watch comedies together, both British ones and American ones. We’re lucky in New Zealand. We actually had the best of both worlds. We got some of your best comedies over here, so it was cool to see them. Cheers, Night Court, M.A.S.H. — all the old-school classics.

You played an important part. We finally got to see Gurgs’ relationship after it’s been teased for so long. How was taking on that love interest role and working with Lacretta?

Rhys Darby: Really cool. She was absolutely lovely, and I knew she would be. She was very gracious with me. She doted on me, making sure I was okay. I was part of their show, so, as a guest, it’s always nice when the cast is comforting. I had a really great experience. I think there was a real cuteness between the two characters, actually. I think it was a good fit. Opposites attract!

Part Of The Turnstile Scene Was Improvised

You play a Duke, who’s into the finer things in life. Were there any nuances that you added to the character to help paint this picture of him?

Rhys Darby: That’s a good question. I had the character in mind, when you’re playing someone who is of a royal descent, that they sort of look down their nose on people a little bit without even realizing it. They live in a little bit of a different world, the kind of aristocrat royalty. The other fun part of it was knowing that Dave Foley was working alongside me.

He’s a Canadian comic actor who I’ve worked with before, so when I found that he was offered the role, I texted him and said, “Hey, are you going to do this? I’m doing this, let’s do it together.” It was fun to be two guys from the commonwealth portraying English people. There was kind of an in-joke there as well. Neither of us are English, but we are part of that world because of where we’re from. It was fun to sort of loosely take the mickey, if you will.

My favorite scene of the episode was definitely the turnstile bit. Can you talk about filming that? Was it hard to stay in character?

Rhys Darby: That one was my favorite as well. I got to improvise a little bit, which you don’t really get much time to do on these multi-cam shows. I’ve had a little bit of experience with them before, and they’re really a different beast to the single-camera, where you can do take after take. The fun part about these live shows is that there are some pre-recorded segments. The subway scene was a pre-recorded one, so we had a little bit more time to play around with it. I got to sort of improvise.

The whole thing with the coat falling on the floor was just done by accident. I was actually twirling it around. I was gonna give it to Melissa, and it fell on the floor, so I instantly just went with what you see on the screen there, so they’ve used that content. And, also, doing my own stunt. I do like doing physical comedy. Sometimes I forget that I’m not 23 anymore, but it was a stunt I could manage. Originally, I was going to go around the sides, like go sneak through the turnstile.

You know how you can sort of use the gap? But then came the option, I think from the stunt coordinator, “I want you to go over it, and then catch your foot as you go over, and that will cause you to fall.” Therefore, it was certainly more of a ministry of walks from Monty Python, full leg up in the air, which made it even funnier and more fun for me to do. I just disappeared out of the frame, and then popped up again with that goofy line of, “I’m a Normal!”

Abby May Have Saved Gurgs’ Relationship With Alistair

You had Melissa Rauch coaching you on how to be a commoner. How was working with her?

Rhys Darby: Once again, such a sweetheart. I did a few scenes with her. I felt bad. She kept getting caught eating off the ground. That was, obviously, the script, but my poncey character would come in and just go “Oh, eating off the ground again, are we? Sorry to interrupt you during mealtime.” So we had a great relationship of like—that was definitely me looking down my nose at her. Even though she’s clearly a judge, her character is high upper echelon.

But of course, that doesn’t mean anything to anyone royal, because no one is above them. She was really fun to work with. The other high-pace thing with these shows is that they rush in and do alternate lines. The writers will come in and go, “Try this line. Try that line.” It’s great to work with seasoned pros who are used to changing their line and doing the scene again really quickly. I noticed Melissa was really good at that.

She remembers her lines really easily. Once again, it’s the craft of these multi-cams that’s quite different to your regular single-cam, where you learn your lines, you turn up on the day, and you might get an alt if you’re lucky. But these shows, like, “Try this line, do this one,” I love doing that, because I love improv. I love trying to, like the writers, trying to make it better as many times as we can in the limited time you have, so the end result is the best you can deliver.

Something that I really loved about your character is how willing he is to change for Gurgs. Did his openness surprise you at all?

Rhys Darby: That’s from the coaching. Melissa’s character basically let him know, “If this is going to work, you’re gonna have to make some changes.” I think, without that, he wouldn’t have. I think that he would’ve been a little bit blinded to the fact that he would have to change. Like in any relationship, compromise is the key to success. Put up with each other’s little quibbles, and learn to make some changes that will make the other person happy. That little tiny lesson was really important. I think that’s what the episode is about.

Is it possible that we’ll get to see you on the show again? Will we see more of Alistair and Gurgs’ relationship?

Rhys Darby: You never know. Without giving too much away, obviously, they’re still there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he came back at some point.

About Night Court

Court is back in session! When the perpetually sunny judge Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) takes the night shift in her father’s old courtroom, she presides over some of New York’s most unique and unusual cases – with an oddball cast of characters by her side. This includes former night court District Attorney Dan FieIding (John Larroquette), who now serves as the court’s public defender.

Check out our other Night Court season 2 interviews:

• Nyambi Nyambi
• Paul Scheer
• Rob Huebel
• Jessica St. Clair
• Ryan Hansen
• Lacretta
• India de Beaufort