Maria Russell talks all things ‘Jury Duty’, the 2024 award season, and more.
Photo credit: Peter Rieveschl
Written by: Gracie Lowes
On May 15, 2023, Prime Video released its show Jury Duty, and not even the cast could predict how fast it would become a hit series for the streaming platform.
The sitcom follows the inner workings of an American jury trial through the eyes of juror Ronald Gladden, who doesn't realize that everyone, except him, is an actor.
I had the chance to sit down (virtually) with actress Maria Russell who plays “Inez De Leon” in the show, to talk about her experience on a set where you couldn’t reveal you were an actor, what the recognition and praise from the public has been like, future projects, and more.
You can read the full interview below.
Gracie Lowes: Congratulations on Jury Duty! I’ve loved it since it came out, so I'm so excited to be talking to you about it.
Maria Russell: “Well, thank you so much.”
Gracie: What has this experience been like for you filming this, having it out and now getting nominations and recognition?
Maria: “In one word, surreal. Because no one could have known that it would have been this ginormous hit, literally overnight. I knew it was gonna be something special, that's for sure, but that’s just because the cast is so talented and so funny. But never in a million years would have thought it would be an overnight hit.
Mostly because when we initially were filming, it was supposed to be on IMDB TV so we're like ‘How do you even get to IMDB TV.’ So we're like ‘Okay well no one's gonna watch this but that's okay because we're gonna have so much fun we're gonna kick ass.’ We were all just excited about the project, then lo and behold, it went to Amazon. So that really created this domino effect.
As for getting the nominations for the Golden Globes, for the Emmy, for Indie Spirit Awards, for the AFI, it's just wild. It still feels surreal, I'm so grateful to be part of something so amazing and so special.
Gracie: Yeah, and like you said the nominations are endless. Golden Globes, the Emmys, the Independent Spirit Awards, just everything in the award world. Could you talk us through how this awards season has been and what it was like for you when you got the news?
Maria: “Oh my gosh. Well, we didn't even know we had won the TCA award, which I didn't even know what that was to be quite honest, because they was next to our billboard that said TCA winners were like, ‘What's TCA?’ So now I know.
But it has been great but it was an interesting time because it was during the strike. But we got the Emmy nomination before the strike and we literally called each other crying because it was like a dream, ‘like what is happening.’ We're up for best comedy series, for casting, for writing, for James Marsden, literally it was like ‘what oh my sweet Jesus’ we all called each other crying.
We also just won the Indie Spirit Award for best ensemble cast, and we still have a couple more to go. So to be honest, the award season was amazing and just like a dream to go through.”
Photo credit: Peter Rieveschl
Gracie: This show is so original that it has comedy but also real emotions in it. What was the creative process like for this show? Because obviously everyone except for Ronald was acting.
Maria: “To be honest, we all had this fear because for me I've done quite a bit of hidden camera shows before and improv shows, but with hidden camera shows, they're one and done. It takes a couple of hours for each mark and then you go ‘Hey the jokes on you there’s cameras everywhere’ but with this, It's like three and a half weeks, so there was this level of fear that we all had because you didn't want to be the one to have Ronald find out that this was not real.
But at the same time you had to be completely present because at any given moment if you just check out for a second, that's dangerous. Even in the process of it, the beginning, the producers allowed us to not only create our characters from the ground up but just let us go.
For example, I was like, ‘I need to change her clothes, she’s too serious and if Ronald doesn't like her the audience isn't going to like her.’ So we made her more fun so she was able to connect with Ronald. So yeah, it was amazing and bizarre and I mean, what a ride.”
Gracie: Definitely. And I love how you described this whole experience as surreal earlier, but if you could describe the show in three words, what would they be?
Maria: “Bizarre, soul and heartwarming. Because even when I watch it, I'm like, ‘I already did this, but I was crying’ and everybody was crying. And I wondered why it was so touching, and it's because it touches the human experience. And the joke wasn't on Ronald, it was to celebrate Ronald.
We were also all crying when Ronald was on the stand and he was about to find out everything, we just thought ‘Oh my god I hope Ronald doesn't hate us. I hope he knows that we meant everything that we said in all the conversations that we had with him.’”
Gracie: I have to ask, do you still keep in touch with any of your castmates?
Maria: “Almost all of them. I just saw Ronald last week. I just played Mahjong with Trisha Lefeche. She plays the plaintiff's lawyer, Debra LeSeur. And yeah, we all keep in touch, we're all on different text threads and we genuinely love each other. I think that's the beauty of it too, because the audience feels that too.”
Gracie: My last question for you obviously this was a huge release but do you have any future projects that you can hint at or talk about
Maria: “I can't talk about the one film but I can talk about the other film coming up it's called ‘In Flight’ and it stars Cristo Fernández, Tiffany Smith and myself so I'm not sure of the release date yet but I know it's this year and it's kind of like an ode to those 1990s-2000s thrillers and reminds me of ‘Red Eye’ with Cillian Murphy.”
