You see an ad on Craigslist. Is this where do people still look at ads on? Apparently they do look at ads at ads on Craigslist. You see a Craigslist ad for what exactly?
So, first of all, I should definitely be the spokesperson for craiglist, because I love it. I still okay, I don't think it's as popular as it used to be, but I've found some gems on there, dating all the way back to me being in college. There's some good stuff on there, sometimes dating.
So you you mentioned the word dating. Do you do you date from Craigslist? No?
No, no, no, no, no.
Okay, all right, just dating? Okay, okay, jobs, all right.
Hi, my name is Ronald Gladden and I am a corgy enthusiast.
Hi everybody, Well, it's a Tuesday, and you know what that means. It means it's time for another episode of Off the Beat with me your host, Brian Bonmgartner. William Shakespeare once said some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Well, my guest today was probably born a pretty great guy, but he definitely had fame thrust upon him. I'm talking to the
star of Amazon's Jury Duty, Ronald Gladden. Now, if you don't know the story, run, don't walk, and watch the show. But here's the short version. Ronald signed up for what he thought was just a regular run of the mill, Jury Duty, doing his civic duty and participating in our well,
our glorious democracy. But what he was actually participating in was basically The Truman Show where he was sequestered from the outside world, filmed twenty four to seven, and everyone around him was an actor and every single was meticulously staged. Now this might sound like a stress dream come true, but Jury Duty is some of the funniest, most uplifting television in recent memory, thanks in no small part to
Ronald's big heart and well can do attitude. So I wanted to talk to Ronald to hear about the process behind this insane experiment and his feelings about the big reveal and the whirldwin that he's been on since the show ended. Hollywood has embraced Ronald with open arms. Folks. Not only did he quit his day job, but he recently signed a deal with Amazon MGM for future projects. So I'm so excited to talk to him today. My favorite former solar panel contractor, Ronald Gladden.
Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeak, I cooking it every month, lift over from the night before.
Well, well, well, hey, look at here.
What's happening Brian Man.
First of all, it's a pleasure to meet you. I gotta say thank you so much for having me after seeing your face on my TV for you know, over a decade. This is amazing. I love it.
Well, thank you for saying that your face has been on my TV the last year. I might call it the best comedy of last year. Congratulations on Uh, well, she's on everything that's It's amazing. And you got to work even though you didn't know it at the time with a couple of old pals of mine, Jean Stepnitski
and Lee Eisenberg. First off, I talked to Jean last summer when around the time the show came out, because I became such a huge fan of the show, and I talked to him about it and I told him I've got to talk to Ronald here at at some point. But now, have you hung out with those guys after after the fact?
Oh? Absolutely, they are great. I heard that Jean is a little bit of a recluse, though I heard he is kind of hard to get in contact with.
Yeah, well they all, you know, all great writers are a little reclusive, right. I guess.
I'll take your word for it. Man, I'm still figuring out how this all works.
Well, I want to, I want to. I want to talk a little bit about about your history first and then how you got propelled onto this, uh, this wild ride of Jerry Duty. First off, you were born in Oregon? Is that right?
Correct? So I am initially from Oregon. I'm from a very small mountain town that no one's.
Ever heard of. Okay, how how how was that growing up? Was that? Was that a good childhood or I.
Mean it was it was hit and miss, Like there was definitely benefits for growing up in a small town. But like, for example, I was really big into sports. I feel like if I would have grown up in like a bigger city, I would have gone further with that. Just I mean, like I said, you know, pros and cons for sure, But I liked it. It's a beautiful place. All majority of my family still lives there. I mean they seem to love.
It, right, and now I heard at some point you took the jump to San Diego. Are you in? Are you in Los Angeles now? Yeah?
I am in Los Angeles now, but grudgingly, I might add I I definitely moved to San Diego specifically, but you know, work relocation.
So is this since the show? You've been in LA? Where were you when? When you when you found out about the show?
So I was in and Diego. What it happened was when I moved to San Diego in twenty nineteen, I got into the Solar world. And so I've been doing construction pretty much my whole life, but I had never done solar specific so I really threw myself into my work because I wanted to learn as much as possible to be as good as possible, and so I really
just kind of dove into it. And I found out about the show because after doing this for a few years, I burnt myself out, you know, twelve fifteen, sixteen hour days living on the road. I just had enough. So I was really just looking for just something different, just to kind of shake it up. And the show was just the perfect opportunity to get an experience I had never done before, you know, they were going to pay me a little bit of money for a couple of weeks of my time. I figured why not.
Okay, So you're doing solar construction, and I understand you went to OSU. Correct for construction engineering.
That is correct.
Okay. So you're doing that, working in the in the solar solar panel industry, and you see an ad on Craigslist. Is this where do people still look at ads on? Apparently they do look at ads at ads on Craigslist. You see a Craigslist ad for what exactly?
So, first of all, I should definitely be the spokesperson for craiglist because I love it. I still Okay, I don't think it's as popular as it used to be. But I found some gems on there, dating all the way back to me being in college. There's some good stuff on there, sometimes dating.
So you you mentioned the word dating. Do you do you date from Craigslist? No? No, no, no, no, no, okay, all right, just dating? Okay, okay, jobs? All right? So you look on Craigslist, you see an ad for what? Yeah?
So, well, I do want to say too, I wasn't just looking on Craigslist. I mean I was looking everywhere it could on Facebook. Indeed, you know, zip recruiter, you name it. But basically the ad was pretty vague, and that's kind of what intrigued me. It basically just said, you know, be a part of a jury where and be doing a documentary about you know, the behind the scenes look at what goes on during the judicial system
and what goes on in like the deliberation room. Is that all you have to do is participate in the trial and then you know, answer our interview questions. So it seems simple enough.
Okay, So had you ever served on a jury before?
No, that was actually one of the main requirements that was in the initial ad. They just had a couple of things that you had to be, you know, certain age range, you had to be a male, and you could have never served on jury duty before.
Okay, okay, so when you show up what we see in the show, do you do you have any other meetings before this or or where the show picks up. Is that you showing up to potentially be chosen for this jury?
Yeah, so the very first day is exactly what you said. I was prep from the very beginning that even though production could love me and they want me to be a part of it. I still ultimately have to get selected by the judge. So I was prepped from day one that I may not even and make it, and I could potentially just have to go home.
Got it? Were there other people in the room. There weren't other people in the room that first day who might have been chosen. No, it was this was about you, right, Yeah.
Well, I mean I didn't know that at the time, but yeah, yeah, about me.
Okay, So when they said you had to be selected by the judge, that was that was bullshit. I mean they yes, but but but for you, you didn't You didn't know you had to show up, and you probably assumed that other people who were there were we were trying to be on this documentary for the for the jury, right.
Actually the other way around, the way the way it was pitched were there were a couple people there that were there specifically for the documentary part of it, but a majority of the other people were all trying to get out of it, essentially because these were all people
who received real summons. And the way that it worked was that after everyone was selected, the camera crew approached to all the people who weren't initially a part of it, and they said, hey, this is what we're doing, we'd like you to be a part of it, and then this is what we can do for you. And so that's how they you know, brought everybody on.
Wow, okay, how difficult was it in terms of the So how long how long were you sequestered from then on?
Uh? Three weeks?
Three weeks and no phone?
Yeah, no phone, no connection to the outside world. They did have an option where you could make monitored phone calls at the end of the day, but that's not even something I really wanted to do because you literally had somebody wearing, you know, an earpiece just listening to your conversation, and so I hated the idea of that.
Oh my god, so did we're okay, Oh my god, there's just so much. So here's the thing that's so fascinating to me about the show is, I mean, I guess by its definition, it's a prank show, right, but because you are being pranked in a way, but it's not at your expense, right, Like it's you're you're you're you're never made to be like the butt of the joke or whatever. I know, some some people have called it the first feel good prank show ever? Are you What was your feeling like when you found out in
the end? What was what was going on?
If I had to sum up in one word, just disbelief, you know, like I just would have because I mean, I know people want to call it a prank show because we don't really have like a term for what this is. Like that's the closest thing that you can describe the show, because I got Truman showed. You know, it's like it was, it was kind of a prank show. But to your point, I was never the butt of
a joke. So that's why I don't like calling it a prank show, because, if anything, it was everybody else making themselves look like morons?
If anything, right, did you? Were you angry?
Not at all? I mean, after the initial disbelief wore off, Like I like to think that I have a pretty good sense of humor, and I mean, you know, I realized that I was never made to look a fool, and so like I could definitely see the funny side of.
It, right. Jeane told me they they did this two other times with two other people, and yours was the one that's stuck, Which makes sense everything seemed to play out perfectly. Did you ever see any of the other footage or see any of the other meet and the other two people who who who this happened to?
No, I was unaware that they did this multiple times. So that's honestly a great feeling to know that I was the one that was chosen. But no, I didn't know that.
Oh you didn't know that till right now.
Yeah, I didn't know that. I mean, I know that people had talked about it, but like, I mean, everything is just always so hush hush, there's always so there's so many levels to it, Like I have no idea.
What were some of the moments. Did you ever suspect that something else was going on? First off?
I mean, so this is hard to describe, Like they got me on camera multiple They only show it once, but they got me on camera multiple times saying like I feel like I'm on reality TV, Like something doesn't feel right, Like I don't know what's going on, but this is something's just not right. But I never seriously entertained the idea that something else could be going on, because that just led me down this rabbit hole, you know. And then at some point when I started questioning my
entire reality. I'm almost starting to question my sanity. At that point, I'm like, oh my god, am I fucking losing my mind right now? You know, so like I could never seriously entertain that idea. I mean, I thought about it jokingly, But in what world do you ever sit down and say, Okay, everything around me is fake, everyone's an actor, this is all an elaborate show, and I'm the center of attention. You know, Like that's a pretty conceited thought to have.
Yeah, the Truman Show, it is. I mean, I think that's actually way better said than a prank show. Yeah, it is like the Truman Show where yeah, you're the only one who's not aware of what the world actually is. Tell me a couple of the moments that happened that looking back, you go, I can't believe that that played out and I didn't realize it.
I mean, the Margaret. I hate watching the fourth episode because that's the Margaritaville episode, because to me, that should have been a red flag because I thought to myself the whole time, I was like, how are we even able to do this? You know, that was at the end of the second week going into our third week. They pitch it as like a, you know, we feel bad that we've kept you guys locked up for this long, so we want to treat you to a night out.
But even then I was like, man, I just didn't think that that was something you'd be able to do. But I kind of just went with the flow. I wasn't going to argue with it, but that definitely raised the red flag for me.
Yeah, James Marsden, did you like him as a person now, I'm not talking about now, but as a as the person that you met as the character James Marsden? What were your secret thoughts about him?
Well? I mean, initially I wanted to love the guy, you know, after I realized who he was and I realized that I knew some of his work and I was a fan, I wanted to enjoy him. But James, to his credit, did exactly what his character development process was supposed to do. Over time, he made me hate him and not want to be around him because he was just such an asshole, you know, like there's no better word for it. He was just he played such this smug, entitled version of himself so well that I
couldn't I didn't want to be near him. Towards the end, I just absolutely didn't want to deal with him.
Who was your favorite.
Ooh, that's tough. Probably a toss up between Maria Russell who played Annez, and probably Ron Song who played kN I feel like he didn't get enough screen time simply because his character was meant to be his delivery was so slow, so just for time constraints, they cut back on it. But he was very fun to interact with.
Did everybody else got to go home? Right? You just didn't know that?
Uh? Well, four were there?
Four or five?
I think there were four other people who stayed in my hotel and then everybody else did get to go home. Yes, but it was pitched. As you know, this sequestration was so last minute that they couldn't find a hotel to fit all of us, and so they broke us up into two hotels where the majority of them did get to go home, and then we were the only ones who stayed in the hotel.
Have you stayed in touch with people since?
Absolutely? Like, something I really want people to know about this show is that, like it really was like a feel good comedy and that we all connected, Like I'm still friends with all of these people. And it's not just the people that you see on screen as well too. I'm talking about the EPs, the show runners, the cameraman Chris Darnell even too, Like I've got all these people's phone numbers and I still stay in contact with them. It's a great group of people.
Yeah, Now were you talking to as this was going on? Were you talking to the quote unquote documentary crew? Like, were you like, are the people who were supposedly producing the documentary or were you sort of I don't know, sequestered from them so.
I could talk to them like at the course. I mean, I could talk to them wherever, but really I dealt with them mainly at the courthouse. So I didn't realize that I was being filmed the entire time because I only ever saw four cameras in total, and they were cameras that were, you know, wheeled from room to room. So as we're moving places, they have to get set ups. There's tons of downtime. So I would kind of just talk to them during those transitions.
Okay, okay. And so the people who were producers, you you were seeing them, you just didn't realize exactly what they were producing.
Yeah, they I don't know what you would call them, an infield producer maybe, but there was two of them. There were the people who actually interviewed me and gave me this opportunity to even bring me on, and so I saw them every day. They're the ones asking us questions at the end of the day, just trying to get information for the documentary.
Did you have any moment that you considered not signing on in the end, because my assumption is because that no knowing how the business works, as I watched it, I'm like, this guy had to have agreed at some point in the end right to say, okay, you can go with this, right. Yeah.
Ultimately they did leave it up to me to sign off and improve on it or not. They said like, do you want to move forward with this or not? I don't know what would have happened if I would have said no. I guess they'd try the whole thing over again. But though I really didn't have any reservations for a few different reasons. One, I didn't I approached this thinking that nobody was going to see this anyways.
You know, this was pitched to me as being very low budget and informational, and who's going to want to watch a documentary about an informational jury duty process, you know, So I didn't think anybody was going to see this. When I found out that James was going to be a part of it, I thought, you know, maybe we'll get a few more eyes on this. But truthfully, I didn't think this was going to get outside of la let alone the state. So I really wasn't too worried
about it. I'll say though, I almost didn't sign up for it in the beginning because the first thing I had to do when I answered the ad was I had to submit like a sixty second self tape just talking about myself, where I'm from, hobbies, interests, things like that. And I hated the way I looked on camera. I hated the way I looked. I hate the way I sounded like. I almost didn't submit it because I was like,
oh my god. I redid it multiple times and I finally just said whatever, I'll just I'll see if it works.
Did anybody share with you why you were chosen?
Not specifically, I mean I've heard like kind of like people's thoughts on the matter, but not specifically. I think it was more of just like I was just open and honest, like Alexis san Pedro. She was the one who was giving me the interviews. She commented about how she was like, oh, I really appreciate your honesty when she would ask me about have I listened to certain
podcasts or seen TV shows? And she's like, some people will lie and try to say that they have, and then I'll ask the more questions further and they won't be able to answer them. But I was just very blunt and honest with her.
Well, that's a good way to be. Anything make you uncomfortable because part of you know, part of what happens when some of the other characters are made to maybe not look so good, specifically some racial comments that happen. What's occurring to me is in the first episode. Anything make you like overly uncomfortable.
Not uncomfortable, just kind of weirded out, I guess. But to be honest, I approach this with the mentality that I'm going to be surrounded by twelve other individuals that could be who knows what you know. I'm going into La. La is already known to have characters for people. I'm going into Jery duty, so it's a random assortment of people, so I kind of approach this with the mindset that I'm going to be surrounded by some pretty weird people.
Right. Yeah, it's I mean the balls that you had to stay with it and your I mean your openness and honesty. I mean, good good for her for choosing you, because I mean, it would have been so easy for it to go so totally wrong and just be unwatchable. I mean, you know, there's a there's a rule in improv. I was thinking about this when I knew I was going to talk to you, and I don't even know if you know this or not, but it's it's the it's the say yes. In other words, if somebody says
something and you say no in improv, it's dead. It's over, like there's nothing else to do. But you stayed open and attempted to mediate at times, attempted to keep people on the team, if you will, at times, which was just so so pleasurable to watch.
Well, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And it's it's funny that you say that because I've I want to live in the comedy world. I love comedy, no matter what form.
That is.
I'd really like to get into it. But I've been looking a lot more into improv because it seems like that's something I really like doing. And I've had a few people who live in that world tell me that I already live my life in the yes and way. So that's why I feel like improv would be like perfect for me because I'm already open to doing that in my natural life.
Now, is this what do you do? You want to continue to work in the entertainment industry. I read that you got a little deal there going with Amazon MGM. Is this is this something you want to continue to pursue. Oh?
Absolutely. We are working on a few different shows right now. We're holding meetings, from meeting with showrunners writers, Like, this is definitely something I want to live in. I can always go back to my construction life if I want to, you know, I can go back to contracting at any point in time. I don't really want to. I'd like to try and make this work, so I'm going to do my best of that, but you know, I always have fallback options if it doesn't work out good for you.
What's what's your favorite thing that you've been able to do or experience because of the show.
Oh that's tough, because I've had a ton of great opportunities. I would just say being invited to all these events just kind of in general, like just getting to meet a list celebrities was never even on my list of things I thought would happen to me. So I'm just enjoying that as much as possible.
Did you ever want to be an actor before this?
You know, it's it's funny.
No is the easy answer, Okay.
I also never, like, I was never the child that had aspirations to be famous, to be a singer, to be an actor. I never I never wanted the spotlight. I've always been kind of like a behind the scenes player, pulling the strings. So it's very it's very different to be the face.
Now are you taking classes?
I have? Yeah, Actually, I don't know how far I'm gonna go. It's something that I'm just doing to see if I like it. I've sat in on Emerson's classes. They have a communic arts division, so just kind of just seeing if it's something I'm interested in. But I definitely am exploring that.
I saw you had a little commercial go there during the Super Bowl. How exciting was that for you.
Oh, it's amazing. And again just getting able being able to meet all of those people as well too, people that I've watched on my TV for years, you know, like those are the experiences that I'm really just like soaking and that's what I'm enjoying the most.
Did you go to the Emmys?
I did go to the Emmys and I got to go to the Globes too.
You did good for you.
Thank you, thank you, And that was a wild time.
What way, what was your favorite party?
Ooh, probably the party, the pre Emmy party. I'm not sure what it's called, but like I can't even tell you how many people I met there. That was just like an overload for me.
Yeah, dude, that's so incredible. Again, in case you didn't know, Lee and Jean are pretty damn smart. Okay, they are pretty damn smart and too. I mean, I think the only thing that's a problem is I don't know, I
don't know how you repeat it. I was talking to him Jane about this, uh before, because now the cat's out of the bag, and I mean for it to have started on freebe and to have gotten so much attention speaks to the quality of the material and that people will find things that are interesting and unique and different, and certainly you are a big part of that.
Yeah, And I will say too, I'm obviously a huge fan of Lee and Jean loved the office obviously, but yeah, just getting being able to talk to those guys is just like that is an experience in and of itself, just like being able to pick their brain and what it is they're thinking and how they work Like that was really cool.
What interests to you about about about the work? Like you know, you said, you're you're you're you're looking at maybe selling some projects and you're taking some acting classes, like do you want to create? Do you want to like? Where? Where do you see yourself here moving forward? If if things go.
Well, well, It's kind of hard to say because I'm more of in like this experimental process, just kind of trying things out to see if I like them. I'd like to give my shot at producing as well. And so I'm trying to work with David Bernad as well too. We're trying to work on stuff, so I'd like to shadow him kind of see how he does his things. I really like the idea of doing like voiceover work because I love animated shows, and so if I could do like an animated comedy, I would love to do that.
Hosting is something that I'm going to try to entertain as well too, So I'm just going to kind of give my shot at anything and just to see how it goes and.
If I like it. You know. The other thing that occurs to me this is so cool is you have so many people who are trying to get into this business. Uh. I mean saying for the wrong reasons. That's that's simplistic. But all they want is to get into the business because of some perception of what it is or or what they could be or what they could do. You're you're tricked into it. You're here, You're you're tricked into
being on uh. You know again, maybe the biggest comedy of last year, and your your temperament is just like, well, let's let's roll with it. Let's just see what happens, and if not, you can go back to doing what you did before. But you had a good time and you're learning a lot, and I uh, I love that.
I wish all of the best to you, Ronald, and and continued uh success, either in this industry or something else, and I had a little bit of a family illness there for the evening before party, or I would have seen you. But one of these days we'll we'll run into each other at one of those events.
A man, yeah, I wish I could have met you there. Damn, that's that's a bumer. I'm sorry. I hope everything's all right.
No, no, everything's fine. But but that that's why I wasn't there. But we'll uh well, we'll do it next time, all right.
Yeah, yes, please, man, I would love to officially get to meet you for sure.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Ronald. I appreciate it, and good luck to you. All right, thank you.
It was a pleasure, Brian. I appreciate you having.
Me on, Ronald, thanks for coming on. That may have been a little short, but very very sweet, that's what she said. And I look, I really look forward to meeting you in person at an event sometime in the very near future. Listeners, I will see all of you back here next week, same time, same place, and until then, have a fabulous week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer lingg Lee. Our Senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers
are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and our intern is Ali Amir Saheed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and Only Creed Brad