Indecent proposal: Marry Me’s Ken Marino gets it on

SINGAPORE – Nothing could have prepared us for the ugly, naked truth about what goes on behind closed doors on the set of sitcom Marry Me. Nor the show’s star Ken Marino’s opening gambit even before we could pop the first question in our interview: “You’re not going to propose to me, are you? Because I’m already married.”

In the sitcom, Marino and co-star Casey Wilson (Happy Endings) play Jake and Annie, a couple who manage to overcome hilariously botched proposals to embark on their road to the altar – which is bumpier than a page of Braille. We asked the actor to share his valuable pearls of wisdom, from how to achieve that perfect proposal to pithy relationship advice, and got more than we bargained for.

Q: The show is called Marry Me. What are the elements of a perfect proposal?

A: You want somebody to say yes. It’s not going to be perfect if they say no. I think you need to have a ring as opposed to just getting down on the knee and being, like, ‘Eh, what do you say? Let’s get married.’ It’d be nice to remember the person’s name. If you hesitate, that’s a red flag. If you get the name wrong, it’s REALLY bad.

Q: Do you think that men get the short end of the stick in relationships because they’re the ones expected to do the proposing?

A: I don’t think so. Because the truth is, that’s the last thing the husband does. The women do most of the work after that and the men just sit around and go, ‘Huh? What? What do you want me to do?’ Women are the superior sex, without question. And so, if we have to grovel a little bit and get on our knees and beg them to marry us, I think that’s the least we can do.

Q: What’s your top tip for sustaining romance in a long-term relationship?

A: My real advice is to tell the person you’re with that you love them. Every morning, wake up and go out of your way to kiss them, as opposed to start complaining about something. There have been studies that if you go to the person you love in the morning and you give them a kiss and you greet them in a positive way, the rest of the day will unfold in a positive way. If you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is start complaining about stuff, then. The rest of the way will unfold in a bumpy way.

Q: That was Ken’s advice – what would Jake’s advice be?

A: Jake’s advice would be, ‘Keep your mouth shut. And whatever your wife says, just do it. Even if it’s a stupid idea.’

Q: Jake and Annie’s relationship is both adorable and awkward. What has been your most awkward moment off-camera?

A: I like to rehearse nude. And the rest of the cast is not excited about that. So, there are a couple of lawsuits pending. But my feeling is, when you’re rehearsing, you want to be a blank slate. I don’t know if Jake is going to wear jeans or a shirt or a robe. So, I start off with a blank slate and by the time I get through the scene a couple of times in the nude, I start to realise, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m probably wearing shorts here’. That’s my process. But I have to say, Casey and pretty much everybody in the cast is against it.

I can’t imagine why.

Me neither.

Q: Have you had any Christian Bale moments on set?

A: It’s embarrassing to say, but the question should be, have I not had any Christian Bale moments. Because pretty much every day, I throw a temper tantrum on set. Mostly, it’s me defending the fact that I’m naked.

Catch Marry Me on Fridays at 9.30 pm on RTL CBS (Singtel TV Ch 318 and StarHub TV Ch 509).