Lesli Linka Glatter’s director credits are all over your favorite TV shows. Think: Twin Peaks, The West Wing, and Homeland. She also took on several episodes of Mad Men, most notably “the lawnmower one” (iykyk), and multiple installments of Gilmore Girls — including the remarkably assured pilot of the quippy family dramedy. And her talent has been apparent from the jump, as evidenced by a short film early in her career that led to at least one invaluable mentorship:
“[Tales of Meeting and Parting] got nominated for an Academy Award and Steven Spielberg saw it on an airplane, which I thought was the most exotic thing,” recalls Glatter. “He called me up and I hung up on him because I thought it was a prank call. Fortunately, he called me back. Steven, I think, gets hung up on a lot.”
Glatter joins Kim Masters for a conversation about her career in television and her new Netflix limited series, Zero Day. Among the show’s many credentials, it features Robert De Niro in his first television role(!). She also tells us more about her many mentors — a list that includes Spielberg, George Miller, and David Lynch. And she dishes a bit on the surreality of directing for streamers.