Interview: Landry Bender Dishes on the new Hulu series, Looking for Alaska
Our latest cover star, actress Landry Bender, can be seen in the Hulu series, Looking for Alaska, which is based off of the bestselling John Green series by the same name.
Landry plays one of the main characters, Sara Bankhead Harbert. She also can be seen on the Netflix hit series, Fuller House, where she plays Rocki, Gia’s daughter. Rocki happens to also be Jackson’s friend and then they become something more as the episodes progress. Glitter spoke with Landry about her path to becoming an actress, the Hulu series, how she auditioned for the show, her favorite John Green novel, her favorite places to travel, her new projects, and if she’d ever consider being on Broadway. Read on to find out more from our uber-talented cover actress.
GLITTER: Did you always want to be an actress?
LANDRY: Yes. One of my first memories was going to see a musical with my mom when I was 4. It was the first time I felt an extreme pull to something, and I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was. About a month later, my parents had me audition for a community theatre in Arizona, and here we are.
GLITTER: What can you tell us about the Hulu series, Looking for Alaska, without giving anything away?
LANDRY: It’s based off the YA novel by John Green. It takes place in 2005 and centers around a boy named Miles, who moves into a boarding school to enhance the mundane life that he already has. Overall, the show deals with asking first questions about life, love, and loss.
GLITTER: Who do you play?
LANDRY: I play Sara Bankhead Harbert. She is from the upper class of Alabama. In the first half of the series, she can come across as extremely entitled and elitist, but it stems from her upbringing and the ignorance of the bubble she was raised in.
GLITTER: How did you audition for the show?
LANDRY: I had been auditioning for our casting director Patrick Rush since I was about 14 or 15 years old. He had me come in to read for two of the other female parts on her show until he finally had me read for Sara a couple of weeks before I left for Louisiana to start filming. She was always the best fit for me, but I guess the character wasn’t supposed to be in every episode, so they were going through rewrites during my audition process. In some cases, I would be thrown off by that process, but Patrick’s become one of my favorite casting directors to read with and always makes me feel so comfortable.
To read Landry’s full interview and to see more from her photoshoot. Download our Glitter app on iTunes now!
Award-Winning Publisher
