We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John Gloria a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In 2012, with no prior writing experience, I wrote a 30 page short film on Microsoft word called “Station Zero”. An actress friend, Jules Bruff, had just finished shooting a feature film she’d written and read it. Her first response was: “Johnny, you can write”! She introduced me to her cinematographer, Justin Duval, with whom I bonded over a shared love of sci-fi, particularly the Twilight Zone. Because I had written my short film in that vein, we agreed to film it with no expectations in mind. It won best narrative short at two film festivals and turned out much better than I could ever have imagined. Since then, I’ve written four features and am working on bringing a feature length version of “Station Zero” to fruition.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I basically began acting seriously my senior year of high school, at the end of which I took first in the state of Arkansas in the solo acting category. I had dreams of playing basketball before then but didn’t get play very much. After the state final I thought: “Gosh, I’m probably better at this…”

I went to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and received a BA in drama, then went to UC Irvine and got an MFA in the same, all the while doing Shakespeare Festivals in the summer. After graduation I moved straight to Los Angeles where I’ve been ever since.

I spent some time working as a session runner for commercial auditions where I learned how to get much “smaller” for the camera. It’s a skill that isn’t easy to learn. But I saw actors booking spots who didn’t seem to be doing anything but just being present in the moment and once I learned to do that I began booking commercials to the tune of 6 to 10 a year.

I spent many years in an acting for the camera class with Charles Carroll, an actor himself who works with a number of actors currently on series or in features and I continue to work with him on my auditions. As an actor who knows how to film other actors, self taping is something I could do on my own, with a little help here and there but I find that having someone with a totally dialed in studio, who’s constantly reading and working on scripts currently in production is invaluable. Just the acting, in my opinion, is hard enough.

Around 2010 I started playing guitar and writing songs in my spare time. As the son of a guitar player and a singer, a certain amount of this seemed to come naturally and so an open mic performance at Highland Grounds coffee evolved into a band I called Good Ol’ Country Railroad which played around LA for seven years, made it’s own record and music video. You can find the record on Spotify. I continue to write songs and play with the guys whenever I can (in fact, we’re planning a reunion show). Playing music is it’s own reward but I feel like allowing your creativity to come out when and however it wants to keeps those juices flowing in all areas of my life and allows me to continue to engage in the process of doing and living that’s invaluable during periods when acting isn’t happening.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2019 I read for a co-star role on an NBC show starring Christina Hendrix called Good Girls. I booked the part and shot a two or three page scene, playing a cop responding to a missing persons call. Like most co-star jobs, I expected to put in the can, pick up a six pack and get on down the road to the next job but after several months got a call from my manager that Luc, the Cop (my character) was coming back.

When I got the script I found Luc on page one in an interrogation room with main antagonist of the show. The writers were referring to him as “folksy” in the script and that’s when I realized I’d done something they responded to. That was a first for me. I shot the scene and went home, once again expecting that was it. But during the pandemic Luc returned once more. This time, I’d been elevated to a top of show guest star and given several scenes, taking part in advancing the narrative of the show. This was not only a total surprise but an honor. A story is someone’s baby. They don’t just hand it off to anyone.

For me, this is a prime example of what can happen for you as an artist if you stick around, keep dong the right things and don’t give up.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I feel very strongly that if we, as a human race, are going to survive the changes that are happening on this planet with the climate and our politics, a collective shift in perspective needs to occur. Acknowledging that we’re probably not the only race of beings I the universe will go a long way towards that.

My goal is to make a feature film that reflects that idea.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://johngloria.net
• Instagram: thejohngloria
• Facebook: John Gloria
• Linkedin: John Gloria
• Twitter: John Gloria
• Other: Our self titled record: Good Ol’ Country Railroad is on Spotify.