Found's Mark-Paul Gosselaar Teases Big Secrets in the Final Season 1 Episodes

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Found, Season 1, Episode 11, "Missing While Interracial." Read at your own risk!]

Since rising to fame nearly 35 years ago as high-school bad boy Zack Morris on the NBC sitcom Saved By the Bell, Mark-Paul Gosselaar has built up a reputation for being one of the most versatile TV actors of his generation. Over the years, he has worked on police procedurals (NYPD Blue), legal dramas (Franklin & Bash, Raising the Bar), sci-fi thrillers (The Passage), and sitcom spin-offs (Mixed-ish, the Saved By the Bell sequel series).

Gosselaar's latest outing, however, is his most villainous role to date. In NBC's Found, the latest drama series from All American and Homecoming showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Gosselaar plays Hugh "Sir" Evans, an English teacher who had a history of kidnapping at least a couple of his teenage students, including protagonist Gabrielle "Gabi" Mosley (played by Azaria Carter in flashbacks and Shanola Hampton in the present). After a year and eight days in captivity, Gabi escaped from Sir's isolated cabin with a newly kidnapped little girl who would later become known as Lacey Quinn (Gabrielle Walsh).

Now, more than two decades later, Gabi has flipped the script on her former kidnapper. While running her own crisis management firm that specializes in finding missing people from marginalized communities, Gabi has been holding Sir captive in her basement for the better part of the last year, and she has been using him to gain insight into the mentality of a criminal.

"I don't feel like he's helping Gabrielle to redeem himself; I think he's helping Gabrielle for his own pleasures," Gosselaar tells TV Guide on a recent video call from New York City. "He's in her presence, he wants to see her do well, he's helping her, but it's really helping him. I don't think he's solving these cases for redemption."

Below, Gosselaar opens up about the challenge of finding different shades in his portrayal of Sir week after week, the twisted love that underlies his character's tortured dynamic with Hampton's Gabi, and the jaw-dropping revelations that will come to light in the final two episodes of the season, which are scheduled to air in January. (NBC renewed Found for a second season in late November.)

It's very easy to play one note of the same thing, since you occupy a very limited physical space in the story, but you've chosen to put a lot of trust in the writers to give you new material that doesn't feel like an afterthought. What new layers are you finding in Sir week after week that continue to make him interesting to play?
Mark-Paul Gosselaar: The challenge that I have is just making sure that I push Sir to a [certain] threshold. I just don't know what that threshold always is, so I have to rely on the writers and the directors to say, "Yeah, that's the last line we're gonna toe this week." Because it is a network show, I can't make him so despicable that you want to turn off your television. Likable is not the word — I'm never playing Sir to become likable, but there has to be levels to Sir, there has to be colors, even in that very dark environment that he operates in. But there just has to be different shades, I guess — not even colors. That's the challenge week in, week out. It's just finding those moments where you can just take different angles with Sir because it could have become one note, and that would be boring television.

In Episode 9, we got flashbacks to a teenage Sir with an emotionally abusive mother. How much of that backstory did you know going into the show, and how does that inform your understanding of Sir's actions and motivations, even if you don't personally agree with the decisions he makes?
Gosselaar: I knew Sir had issues with his mom, [but] I didn't know to that extent. Nkechi had told me about some of them, but it wasn't until we started filming Episode 8 and I got Episode 9 to read that I was like, "Oh, wow, that fills in a lot of blanks." So I was just going off the things that you put in your head: "Okay, he has issues with his mom," and then you just add your own story, so it was pretty similar to the stories I made up in my head [and] I was thankful for that. But because it was a sad story, I felt, while we were filming those [flashbacks], this great sadness for Sir. All the characters on Found are dealing with or have dealt with trauma, and they all have different ways of expressing it and then dealing with it, and that's how Sir dealt with his trauma. We try not to judge, but it's kind of hard not to judge Sir because he didn't take the path that most people would take. He obviously has other things going on.

Viewers are really drawn to the tortured relationship between Gabi and Sir because it's so difficult to define. Shanola told me that you guys really like playing with that weird chemistry because it's weird, gross and sick. But there is also this undercurrent of love there, because Sir thought — and probably still thinks — he was helping Gabi fulfill her potential in the future. How would you characterize their relationship?
Gosselaar: It is a love relationship, and it's absolutely underlined by love. It's a sick and twisted love, but it has always been, for Sir, that he has admired and had this deep love for Gabrielle. It's not a sexual thing, but he loves to be in her presence, loves to see her do well, thinks she's absolutely brilliant and just adores her. [He] is willing to be in this environment in this compromising situation and be chained up.

In [Episode 9], he's sick, and obviously living in a dark basement is going to wreak havoc for your immune system and your body, but he's willing to make some sacrifices just to be in the presence of someone that he loves. I don't know how Shanola is playing it, but I play it [like] I'm getting this love from her back even if it's an abuse of love, which is kind of what he was used to growing up. So it's all playing into Sir's sick fantasy, and he's getting what he needs from the relationship at all times.

Gabi refuses to acknowledge the humanity in Sir, but do you think he is worthy of redemption? Can he be redeemed?
Gosselaar: No, I don't think so, because it's still ongoing, right? I've never played it that way. I don't feel like he's helping Gabrielle to redeem himself. I think he's helping Gabrielle for his own pleasures. He's in her presence, he wants to see her do well, he's helping her, but it's really helping him. I don't think he's solving these cases for redemption.

Has there been a one-on-one scene between you and Shanola this season that has really stood out in your mind? Was there something that she did in a particular scene that helped you unlock something in your own character that you wouldn't have been able to unlock without her?
Gosselaar: I think one of the scenes that I'm most proud of is the one where he basically says, "If I scream, the person upstairs will come find me," and he asks Gabrielle to express her love for him. It's a scene between the two of them, and he gets Gabrielle to say, "I love you." That was a very interesting scene, and I remember reading that going, "Oh, my gosh, this is gonna be so much fun to play and find those shades and this dance that Shanola and I have. This is going to be a good day of acting because it's very challenging." And then I knew that the way that it would be shot would be rewarding, and I was very happy with the way it turned out. That was probably one of my favorite scenes.

This may be a trivial question, but I noticed that, with the exception of some more gray in his beard, Sir looks about the same he does today as he did 20 years ago. Were there ever any conversations about aging you up even more in the present timeline?
Gosselaar: Yeah, I think there were talks about it. I had some concerns about it. The only thing I could chalk it up to is my Asian genes! We look pretty good, Max. [Laughs.]

We do!
Gosselaar: I am the age of Sir. I'm 50, and my hair is still this [black] color, but I do have a gray beard usually. And to play Sir, we just left my beard the way it is. For me, I wish I did look a little bit older, but again, we have limited time when we're filming these shows, and it becomes a little more difficult. But I just have good genes. Thank you, mom!

Episode 11 ends with Gabi calling someone on the phone and saying she needs them to come over to talk about Sir. We also discover that Detective Trent (Brett Dalton) has a suspicion that Gabi has been in contact with Sir. What can you tease about the last two episodes of this season?
Gosselaar: We learn how Sir was brought into the basement, how he was found. We know who helps Gabi. There is someone that helped Gabi find Sir. That person isn't aware that he is in the basement, but that person did help Gabrielle locate Sir, and then basically, that person said, "Look, do what you want to do with Sir, but I don't want to know anything about it."

One of the things I've admired about your career is that you've been able to work consistently for the better part of the last three decades, dating back to the end of Saved By the Bell. How do you go about picking projects at this stage of your career, and how does Found align with the kinds of stories you want to tell going forward?
Mark-Paul Gosselaar: I've been fortunate, Max. I don't know how else to say it. This business can bring so many ups and so many downs, and I've just been fortunate enough to have a lot of ups, just being in the right place, right time. I have good representation. I have a great family who supports me. I haven't had those big successes, at least for me. I haven't been on a show that has run into syndication where I'm able to buy an island for my assistant, like if I was on SVU. I would love to be Mariska Hargitay; I would love to be Chris Meloni and take off and then come back. A good friend of mine, Vanessa Lachey, is on NCIS: Hawaii, and I'm so proud of her. I'm so happy that she's on this show that's doing 22 episodes a season and she's living in Hawaii and she and Nick [Lachey] are [doing] Love Is Blind.

But I feel like I've been doing these one-offs lately, like Pitch — a beautiful show. I was so proud to be on that — [and did only] one season. I do The Passage — one season. Mixed-ish, I was like, "Oh my gosh, here it is! That's the thing I'm gonna retire on." We do a season and a half because of COVID, and then it gets canceled. So I'm always looking for that long-running show [where] I can just be with an audience for a long time. NYPD Blue is probably the closest thing. I did that for four years, and I was so thankful, but it was at the tail end of the 12-year run, so it was starting to lose steam. I did four years of Franklin & Bash, but we only did 40 episodes, because we did 10 episodes a season and that was kind of tucked away on cable, and we sort of had a cult following.

But I really feel I haven't had that massive diesel that has left the station and just keeps on going, so I'm hoping Found is it. I love the cast. I love the writing. The character is challenging. I can only imagine that it's going to become even more challenging in the future with Sir. But all of that just comes down to being in the right place at the right time, and not for a moment letting off the gas or becoming complacent. I'm still wanting to work and to find that big diesel that just takes off.

Found airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC. The final two episodes of the season will air on January 9 and 16, 2024. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.