Robert Longstreet

Robert Longstreet

From Back To One by Peter Rinaldi

March 17, 2026 · 55 min · Episode 384

About this episode

Robert Longstreet discusses his acting career, the psychological impact of his roles, and his experiences in the industry.

Robert Longstreet is a respected actor who moves fluidly between indie films and genre work, showing a gift for playing complex, wounded, or morally ambiguous characters. He gained broader recognition recently for his performance as a grieving father in "The Haunting of Hill House," created by Mike Flanagan. Longstreet has since become a regular collaborator with Flanagan, appearing in projects like "Midnight Mass," where his portrayal of the troubled but deeply humane Joe Collie became one of the show's most poignant characters. On this episode, he talks about the psychological effects of some of the dark roles he's done and ponders if leaving "a pound of flesh" is necessary for the work. He calls directors not knowing how to talk to actors "a sin beyond measure," explains why good writing is so easy to memorize, why he'd rather do a zoom audition than a self-tape, why he didn't want to play a psychopathic octogenarian woman in Todd Rohal's instant cult classic "Fuck My Son!" and struggled all the way through it, plus much more. Back To One is the in-depth, no-nonsense, actors-on-acting podcast. In each episode, host Peter Rinaldi invites one working actor to do a deep dive into…

People in this episode

Host: Peter Rinaldi

Guest: Robert Longstreet

Topics covered

  • acting process
  • indie films
  • genre work
  • psychological effects
  • collaboration
  • audition techniques

Keywords

  • Robert Longstreet
  • acting
  • indie films
  • Midnight Mass
  • The Haunting of Hill House
  • audition
  • psychological roles

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Fuck My Son!

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