Gladden steps out of jury box, into spotlight
Juror not angry after learning about fake trial, actors on series
Since the finale of
“Jury Duty” was recently released 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 San Diegobased project manager, 30, instead found himself as the unknowing star of his 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 has 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 said in a recent interview. “Obviously, I’ve never experienced this type of recognition before.”
Gladden says he’s fielding thousands of direct messages on Instagram, where his follower count has grown from a few hundred to 120,000 since the show was released.
His fans are arguably even more obsessed on TikTok, where a hashtag of his name, #RonaldGladden, boasts more than 28 million
views, filled with videos dubbing him as the “perfect example of the female gaze” and thirsting over his good-natured reactions to the increasingly absurd situations thrown at him.
For example, when
David Brown, who plays oddball juror Todd, shows up to court with crutches attached to his legs, a contraption he calls chair pants or “chants,” Gladden doesn’t laugh behind his back. Instead, he shows him the movie “A Bug’s Life” in their hotel room later that night to make him feel better about his idiosyncrasies. When juror Ken, played by Ron Song, loses $2,000 to Gladden in a Korean gambling game he has never played before, Gladden refuses to accept
the money.
This interview with Gladden has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: How are you enjoying your new fame? A:
I’m definitely enjoying it, but truthfully nothing really changed until a couple of days ago, like my social media presence grew and that was really about it. But as soon as the finale aired (April 21), and everybody saw how it ended, and I’m doing all these events, now the change is actually really happening.
Q: Were you upset or did you feel deceived at all over how much time and effort you put into the trial when you found out it was fake? A:
There was never a
moment when I was truthfully angry about it, no, because on the day of the reveal, it was so much to process, like I couldn’t be mad about it. Like I still had to process the fact that everything they were telling me was true. And then it was like peeling back layers of an onion. After I processed that it was true, I still had to accept the fact that this was fake. So there was never any time to be angry. And truthfully, the only reason I would have been mad was if I found out those relationships I had forged with people were completely forced.
Q: Who is the most different from their “Jury Duty” character? A:
The three people that surprised me the most were Noah (played by Mekki Leeper), Ken and Todd. Obviously Todd. Those three individuals were the complete opposite of the people that they portrayed themselves to be. And so now I’m absolutely fascinated by those three, because I just want to get to know everything about them. Because I spent a month of my life thinking that they were a certain way, and now they’re like, “Hey, just kidding, this is who I really am.” So like, “Who are you?”
Q: Had you met other celebrities before doing the show? A:
Up until this, I had never personally met a really famous person. I’ve been to their shows, I’ve seen performances, but I’ve never personally met them. So in the beginning, James (Marsden) ruined all those people for me. Anybody famous, James ruined them. I was like, “This is apparently just what they’re all like.” So after I found out that wasn’t who he really was, it was just a huge sigh of relief.
Q: What are your plans for the future? Are you open to being in another show or staying in entertainment? A:
I mean obviously I want to capitalize on all this. But as of right now, I can’t give you anything concrete, because we’re still having those discussions. But yeah, absolutely. I would love to be on something else. I am not opposed to staying in this world. Everybody asked me, “Do you want to do stuff after this?” And I always tell them, “If you would have asked me this before this experience, I would have given you a resounding no, I have zero desire to be in this world.” But now that I’ve had such a fantastic introduction, I’m not opposed to staying in it.
Q: What was one of your favorite moments from set that got cut? A:
I’m assuming it’s because they didn’t get the right footage because it was hidden camera, but literally on Day 1 was one of my favorite moments when James and I were out at the food truck. He offers to buy everybody lunch in an effort to impress the judge, whatever he was trying to do. Doesn’t work out. They ask James, “Hey, can we get a credit card from you?” He turns and looks at me. And he’s like, “Hey, man, do you want to split this with me?” I was like, “No, absolutely not. You just offered to buy everybody lunch. I’m not going to split this with you.” I wish that had made it.
Q: What has it been like seeing the public’s reaction to you? A:
Literally, never in a million years did I expect this. I went into this thinking that nobody was going to see this. Once I realized that James was going to be sequestered with us and he was part of the jury, I was thinking maybe a couple million people will see this because now we have a Hollywood superstar. Then after the reveal, and I found out it was Amazon, I was like, “Okay, maybe this is gonna be a little bit bigger than I was expecting.” I never would have imagined it would have not only gotten the attention, but the positive responses as well. If there’s one thing I’m happy about is that people are just responding to this so positively. And I hope that they just pay that forward, just being a good person in general. That’s the message. I hope that this spreads.