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Mark-Paul Gosselaar Reveals Why He Only Pranks Shanola Hampton on Set, and Other Cast Secrets
Found costars Shanola Hampton and Mark-Paul Gosselaar also hilariously shared who “flubs” their lines the most often and the scenes that have them feeling proud as they reveal Found cast secrets.
Found often dials up the drama as Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) and her team race against the clock to bring home the missing and vulnerable, but when the cameras stop rolling, the cast isn’t above having a little fun.
Hampton and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who plays the ominous kidnapper-turned-captive Sir, revealed the biggest on-set prankster in a new interview with US Weekly.
Found Cast Secrets
According to Hampton, the cast member most likely to pull a practical joke is Karan Oberoi, who plays the usually serious enforcer Dhan Rana.
“He’s just an idiot in the best way. That’s my dude,” she revealed. “Yeah, Karan, he’s just a fool."
But he isn’t the only one to try to lighten things up on the set of the edgy drama. Gosselaar confessed he pranks Hampton “all the time.”
Unlike other members of the ensemble cast, Gosselaar typically only works with Hampton or Azaria Carter, who plays the teenage version of Gabi while she was being held captive in Sir’s rural cabin.
“I prank you, because you’re the only one I can prank,” Gosselaar told Hampton. “I can’t really prank Azaria because those scenes are dark and it’s terrible.”
RELATED: Why Was Lacey Kidnapped on Found? The Diabolical Mind of a Criminal, Revealed
Gosselaar shared that one time he convinced the crew that Hampton had been cast as one of the next Ghostbusters, although it was really just a rub at the jumpsuit she was wearing that day.
“I’m like, 'Can we please give a hand to Shanola? She’s just landed a role on Ghostbusters,'” Gosselaar shared. “Everybody was like, ‘Yes, wow!’”
But when she came down the stairs wearing the jumpsuit, the crew quickly “got the joke.”
For her part, Hampton insisted Gosselaar was known more for “roasting” and not “pranking.”
It was just one of the Found cast secrets the pair spilled during the light-hearted interview.
When asked which cast member is most likely to “flub” their lines, Hampton gave the honor to Gabrielle Walsh, who plays Lacey Quinn on the NBC drama.
“Everyone does a good job with their lines, but Gabrielle probably flubs the most,” she dished.
Gosselaar had a smaller pool of people he works with to choose from, but between Hampton and Carter, he chose to go with Hampton.
“Azaria never flubs. Never, ever, ever, ever. But you will once in a while,” he told Hampton. “You know it happens, it’s normal.”
As for their guilty pleasures on the set? Hampton admitted her favorite “go-to” snacks on the craft services table are crunchy Cheetos, Blackberry Ginger Ale, and cupcakes.
“I love to eat and I love junk food,” she confessed.
The more disciplined Gosselaar, who admitted to eating a brown sugar Pop-Tart “like once a season” as his “indulgence,” poked fun at Hampton’s love of junk food.
“She’s in such good shape. She works out every morning. It’s incredible and then you know she’s like, she sustains this energy. That diet should crash you,” he playfully remarked.
The interview hit a more serious note when Hampton and Gosselaar were asked which scene they were most proud of in the crime drama.
For Gosselaar, it was the scene in which Sir, who is now being held captive in Gabi’s basement after she turned the tables on her one-time kidnapper, forced Gabi to tell him that she loved him in exchange for his cooperation.
“That was a good one for me with you,” he said.
Hampton agreed the scene was “good,” but took a more broad-stroke approach with her answer.
“I have to say that with the exception of maybe one scene, anything in the basement I’m really proud of,” she said.
Gosselaar, a regular viewer of Found himself, also had high praise for the rest of the cast.
“I watch the shows, you know, when they’re on sometimes. I don’t like to watch myself, but I really enjoy the procedural aspects of the show,” he said, before praising the writing and acting.
In particular, Gosselaar said Kelli Williams’ scenes as Margaret Reed, the grieving mother still desperately searching for her missing son years after he vanished, “kill me as a father.”
Gosselaar is the father to four children.
“She’s amazing, but everyone, Karan, Arlen (Escarpeta), Gabrielle, they each bring a light to the show that I find myself, much like the audience has thankfully, really connecting and relating to their characters, 'cause they each bring something to it,” he said.
It's not the first time Gosselaar and Hampton have discussed their bond.
“I’m more the brooding, sort of in my head type,” Gosselaar said in an interview with NBC Insider. “This one [referring to Hampton] comes on set singing and joyful and saying, ‘Hello!’ to everyone on set and asking what they had for lunch and what they’re doing tonight for dinner.”
RELATED: Turns Out Sir Has a Twisted Backstory: The Latest Reveal on Found, Explained
Hampton is an amazing person to work opposite of on screen, Gosselaar emphasized.
“I feel truly blessed … we get to share this experience,” Gosselaar said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.”
The two also displayed their love of jokes and pranks in an exclusive set video, which you can watch, above.
