‘Jury Duty’ Star Ronald Gladden on His Newfound Fame and Future Plans: ‘I Would Love to Be on Something Else’
variety.comAnna Tingley In the days since the finale of “Jury Duty” on Amazon Freevee, Ronald Gladden’s life has changed in ways he never could have imagined.
After responding to a Craigslist ad asking for participants to take part in a documentary about jury duty, the 30-year-old San Diego-based project manager instead found himself as the unknowing star of his very own “Truman Show.” He ended up being the foreman on an absurd, fake trial while a cast of actors orchestrated a string of ludicrous scenes pulled straight out of a sitcom.
While in hindsight it’s hard to see how Gladden didn’t have his suspicions, the most unbelievable moment for him might have come in the final episode, when it’s revealed that every interaction he’s had over the past month was scripted and rehearsed, with hidden cameras documenting his every move that would ultimately be viewed by millions of strangers. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t a little bit nervous about all this attention,” Gladden tells Variety over a Zoom call from a Los Angeles hotel, where he’s currently on a press tour for the show alongside fellow jurors James Marsden, David Brown and Mekki Leeper and creators Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (the producers behind “Bad Trip” and “The Office”) “Obviously, I’ve never experienced this type of recognition before.” Gladden says he’s fielding thousands of DMs on Instagram, where his follower count has grown from a few hundred to 120,000 since the show aired.
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