Exclusive: Colton Dunn Talks NBC’s ‘Superstore’

NBC’s workplace comedy Superstore recounts the daily struggles and adventures of a group of employees at Cloud 9, a supersized megastore in St. Louis, Missouri.

With diverse backgrounds and personalities, the quirky Cloud 9 employees handle the mundane tasks of superstore work in hilarious ways. Created and written by Justin Spitzer of The Office, the second season of Superstore will premiere on September 22nd. We talked to Colton Dunn, who plays sardonic Cloud 9 associate Garrett, about his experiences working on the show and what we can expect from the upcoming season.

How did you get involved with the show?

Well, pretty much the normal route. I auditioned during pilot season and had a fun audition, and then the callback, and then you test, and then we shot the pilot. That was pretty much my road to doing the show.

You play a character called Garrett. Can you tell us a little bit about him?

Garrett is a pretty cool dude, pretty chill. He’s very sarcastic. I like to say that he’s in charge of customer service, but he doesn’t like the service and he doesn’t like customers. He’s sort of the way I was when I had a minimum wage job–kind of just there to get the check, he’ll put on the vest but he’s not going to put too much into it.

Superstore features a diverse set of characters, each with their own uniquely humorous idiosyncrasies. Do you find that this diversity is reflected in the cast, and what’s it like working with them?

It’s great. For me, I’m mixed race, so diversity’s just part of my life, and everywhere I’ve been, it’s always been very diverse. I find it more of an anomaly when I watch a show where it’s only white people. I’ve been in that situation for a long time, so it just feels totally normal. I like it. You get to have a ton of different viewpoints and opinions, and I think it is a better reflection of what the world actually looks like.

The show brings up many social issues that are very relevant in the present day such as racial tensions, labor rights, reproductive justice, gun control, and transgender people using public bathrooms, and it explores them in a way that is often very funny and satirical from various perspectives. Behind the writing of Superstore, is there an active goal to make some sort of social commentary?

We definitely deal with the issues that are out there during the day, but the thing is, we take place in a store in Middle America, and the fact is, those issues don’t just exist in the news. They exist in the real world, so the way I look at it is our show’s just really reflecting what’s going on in the real world. It’s not so much that we’re dealing with issues; it’s just sort of the gravity of the day. We have an episode where there’s an open carry situation in the store where people are allowed to walk around with their guns, and we just gotta deal with like, “Does that make you feel comfortable when you’re walking around with an AR53? Or does that make you uncomfortable?” I don’t feel like that’s dealing with the issue as much as it is just acknowledging the gravity of what’s going on in America right now.

What has been your favorite part of working on the show?

My favorite part about doing the show is working with the cast. They’re the best. I love hanging out after the shoot or on set and just kind of making jokes. It’s a really fun cast and a ridiculously fun crew, so we’re just hanging out on the set all day making each other laugh, and that’s probably the most fun. It’s just kind of laughing and having fun and doing a show that I think everybody really likes.

What do fans have to look forward to in the new season?

Look forward to seeing more of these characters. I feel like for the first season, you have to do a little bit of work just kind of creating characters and getting everybody to know them. And now when we come back with the second season, everybody kind of has an idea of who they are, so we can explore them a little bit more. We can see a little bit more of who Cheyenne is and who Mateo is, and at least for my character Garrett, you get to see a little bit more of his love life and his dating scene and what that’s like and how he deals with that to get to know him a little bit more personally.

Are you currently working on any other projects?

This is pretty much it. This is pretty much the only project that I’m working on, but I also did a movie called Lazer Team with a group company called Rooster Teeth, and we’ll be making the sequel to that at some point in the future, so I’m excited about that. But for the most part right now, Superstore all the time, 24/7.

Premieres Thursday, September 22 on NBC.

Photo by NBC