The Indy interviews Matthew Gray Gubler.
Matthew Gray Gubler is an actor and former model who stars as Dr. Spencer Reid, a young genius who helps the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI find the unsub on CBS’s Criminal Minds. I interviewed Matthew recently, and was also able to view his short films from his NYU days as well as a more recent series, called Matthew Gray Gubler: The Unofficial Documentary, a satire about the lifestyles of the rich and the famous.
Matthew’s older short films are sometimes frightening and thought-provoking, but always entertaining and fresh. He expresses his particular view of the world in his mainly satirical films that explore a fascination with death and dark humor. His films, although not for the feeble, are remarkably interesting and unique. Though they aren’t available for sale or online, maybe some readers can befriend Matthew and gain access to entertaining shorts like The Cactus That Looked Like a Man, Dead or Retarded, and Claude: a Symphony of Horror.
Here’s a clip from our conversation:
B: You were a film major at NYU. And how did you like that?
M: I liked it a lot. It was a great experience. I was actually planning going to go to Los Angeles for film school. It’s a great school here. But I’m just a big fan of NY and their programs are a lot more hands on than any of the programs out here. I’m really glad I went to NY.
B: So do you have a favorite movie you can recommend to our readers?
M: I like Buffalo 66 a lot. I love Rushmore. I like Vertigo. Pretty much all Roman Polanski films, but if I had to pick a favorite I think it would be The Goonies.
B: Goonies?
M: Yeah. I love Goonies. I love pretty much every movie. Yeah. So what’s your favorite movie?
B: That’s a tough one. I really like Magnolia and Pulp Fiction.
M: Yeah, Magnolia’s a good one.
B: So if you had to pick someone to take to dinner or a movie with you, who would it be and why?
M: Fictional character... hmm...This is a really good question. Let me think about that for a second. Maybe ... I think it would be Billy Brown from Buffalo 66. Yeah, the character is just interesting. He won me over with his sanity and his charm. He’s a pretty funny character. He’d be an interesting dinner guest. He’d probably threaten me a lot. Murderer... Have you seen that movie Buffalo 66?
B: Actually I haven’t. Is it good?
M: You should check it out; it’s pretty great. I don’t know. I’m a gigantic fan of it. Um ... maybe him. Arturo Bandini. He’s a character from the books by an author called John Fante. Either one of those. Arturo Bandini is the alter ego of the author John Fante. He’s sort of a dead beat Los Angeles writer who then ... I don’t know how to explain it really. He’s a delusional optimist ... just a fun person to take to lunch or dinner?
B: Do you see parts of yourself in these characters? Or are they just interesting to analyze for you?
M: I see myself in Vandini’s optimism and Billy Brown. I like his charisma. I guess for lack of a better term. I also like The Adventures of Pete and Pete on Nickelodeon. It might be a little bit before your time but I those kids were really funny to. They were really quirky characters.
B: This is maybe a harder question, but what’s an embarrassing childhood memory for you?
M: That’s an interesting question. I get asked that occasionally. Let me think about that for a second. I rarely get embarrassed. I was in the Boy Scouts and it was President’s Day or something. I was in the back of this dark auditorium and for whatever reason I looked behind this sort of wall divider and there was someone back there dressed as Abraham Lincoln ready to walk on the stage or something. I had no idea he would be there and I shrieked like a 12-year-old girl. You know it’s pretty frightening to see a weird guy in a top hat in the shadows of a dark theater when you don’t expect it and uh everyone uh ... they laughed. That probably was the most embarrassing moment of my life. It probably wasn’t interesting, but it was pretty funny.
B: Where do you see yourself in 10 years and how do you plan on getting there?
M: I don’t know. I hope I’ll be directing some films in 10 years. And right now I’m acting on this show and you know that’s been a nice stepping stone into learning a lot more about directing, and, you know, working along side great actors and great directors. So hopefully continue on that trajectory.
B: So do you talk to people on the set? In your unofficial documentary, they’re all “Oh we don’t let him near the script or anything...” So what’s the deal with that?
M: Those are totally all jokes. And you know you can talk to anybody. You know we’ve been on the show for three years and you’re really dropped in the dead center of all the action and I get to see all the aspects of the filming process from the acting side to the writing side to, you know, how the studio notes affect things, and to how different directors function, how different actors take notes. Yeah, I’ve definitely seen a lot. I’m definitely in the war zone.
B: Where do you see your inspiration coming from for your films other than seeing these great co-workers of yours?
M: The early 1920s German Expressionism probably is my favorite visual influence as far as my drawing or my own directing. All those early those forgotten films of the early 1919 German films — I love watching them. Imagery will never be as perfect. It’s so funny because they really nailed it early. It’s so funny because it was such an early period of time because it was so early when cinema was born, but I think it was at its height back then and it has been steadily dropping ever since. I like those films. I really like shorts, which I think it’s more me. Yeah, I don’t know... I love comedy. Larry David is a major inspiration for those unauthorized documentaries. Yeah, and the Natural History Museum in New York. You know, whenever I’m home I spend hours in there, a sort of a kind of creative bastion.
B: Do you just go there and sit and look at things to get your ideas going?
M: Pretty much, yeah. I love going there and just reading. Just being there is inspiration. Same thing with the New York Public Library or anywhere in Nevada. I live in Las Vegas and whenever I go home I’m immediately excited to make stuff.
B: Your Unofficial Documentary is obviously a satire, but if people don’t know it’s a satire, do you ever fear losing some fans who might think you’re really like that?
M: Definitely. I know my mother was not really angry but a little worried and concerned when she saw the first one because you know the intention actually was, I’m a big fan. ... You hear stories and you see stories of actors behaving inappropriately and I don’t know, I just think it’s really funny. They’re so clearly satire that I think only one in 50 people think they’re real. If the other 49 are so amused by it, that outweighs the casualty of the gimmick, for lack of a better explanation. Yeah, I think people will kind of realize that they are jokes.
B: So in watching some of your short films that your assistant sent me, I’ve seen some a theme of violence, especially with the victims bleeding to death.
M: Until you mentioned it, I had never thought of it. I have a massive phobia of blood. I can look at fake stuff, but if I get cut or if I go to the hospital, I almost pass out. And I think that’s got to be some sort of a reaction to that. I was very, I was very ... when I was a young kid I was really scared of the dark. I was really frightened and I had to sleep on my parent’s floor until like 8th grade. I was really scared of my room. And it was around that time that I realized that if I tried to scare people it would make me less scared. I got really into hiding and jumping out at my sister and playing pranks on people. Think is sort of a reaction to my own absolute terror of the dark and of blood. It’s a way to exorcise it.
B: Do you think that your involvement in Criminal Minds is also an outlet for your fear as well?
M: It’s funny because that borders to the point of tedium that it’s an incredibly dark show and um the violence on that show is ... something that is very uninteresting to me aesthetically. I think the stuff in my movies is more of a fairy tale type of violence, like I like to think sort of similar to like Mother Goose and the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Who are making witches and eating and, you know, eating people. More of a, you know, medieval mythology of violence. Whereas Criminal Minds is so realistic, so rich, from the headlines that it is a sort of violence that I don’t enjoy. And that sort of was the reason I started making those fake documentaries, just anything to relieve the darkness on set.
B: How does your experience of playing one role affect your development of another character? Do you let one meld into the next or do you try to keep them separate?
M: I did a couple of independent films about a year ago that just finished being edited and I watched them and I was really happy because I get kind of used to playing Dr. Spencer Reid. These other films were a relief to all of a sudden be in someone else’s head and I already started adding their own unique things to them but I sort of inherently tried to weigh into their fabric. ... I hope that with any character I will ever play you will see a thread of similarity between them, but hopefully they will be different people if that makes any sense. I had hoped that every character I ever played would get along with each other in the same room or at least have something to talk about, while hopefully being very different. I just finished my low IQ serial killer and while I don’t think he’s anything like my genius counterpart on Criminal Minds, I think that they would be able to talk to each other.
B: You mentioned some of the independent films you worked on. Can you tell us a little more about Pornstar and How to be a Serial Killer?
M: I just saw How to be a Serial Killer and I’m so incredibly proud of it. ... It’s a very, very strange film unlike any I’ve ever seen. It’s something that’s sort of so unique that I get proud just to be a part of it. ... It’s basically an instruction manual on how to be a serial killer narrated by a sort of um charismatic and bizarre guy who is teaching my character how to be a serial killer. It’s a unique film and I think if you’re a fan of dark comedy I think you’ll like it.
B: Is it wide release?
M: It’s more of a cult film. A sort of midnight movie. It’s sort of a character study and part how-to manual. I can’t describe it. I saw it three days ago and am still kind of mystified.
B: And Pornstar?
M: Pornstar is a dark independent film about the ramifications of being a pornstar. I have a pretty small part in that. I play a porn director who desperately wants to be a real director but who has been caught in the maelstrom of the porn world. Yeah I don’t really know much about it but it’s a very good script.
B: Can you give us an inside scoop on what’s going to be happening on this season’s Criminal Minds?
M: Someone is maybe gonna get blown up. I don’t know who. That’s a mystery to me, too. All I know is something blowing up. I think one of the main characters may be involved in that. ... My character’s been hooked on heroin and someone else may or may not be pregnant on the show. Oh and I signed on officially for the sequel of Alvin and the Chipmunks [playing Simon].
B: So do you think Dr. Reid will be in any more high tension situations this season?
M: I bet your bottom dollar. It’s the writer’s favorite thing to put Dr. Reid into like some sort of damsel in distress situation, but I think they’re making him a little bit stronger, too. Reid is kind of in a character revolution. In fact, the episode we’re shooting now is really interesting because it flashes between modern-day us and the versions of us four years ago. And I played Dr. Reid four years ago yesterday and it felt like a completely different show. ... It didn’t hit me until that moment how much this character was really transformed and changed into something completely different.
B: Do you think he has as severe a form of Asperger’s syndrome or do you think he’s grown out of it?
M: No, no it’s funny because when I switched back into the old character I I found myself talking in ... the way that the character did in the first year of the show. But I think no one changes from having Asperger’s but the way he is written he has gotten so much more confident and sort of more professional and less timid. It almost seems at this point completely unrealistic for him to have completely grow out of having Asperger’s Syndrome, but I think he sort of has... and I miss it. ...
B: Can you give us an inside scoop for Alvin and the Chipmunks?
M: I know very little. I honestly don’t even know. The first one was a pretty big success. ... . I know it will be good. I have a great amount of respect for the Bagdasarian family. They are the ones who created the Chipmunks franchise. I’ve never seen a family more committed to something than the Bagdasarians. It’ll be great.
B: Can you comment on what your experience was like working on a project that you used to watch as a kid?
M: I got to say it was mind boggling. I was obsessed with the Chipmunks. I still am obsessed with the Chipmunks. When I got the phone call that they wanted me, I was like, what the hell? I couldn’t even believe it... I didn’t want to tell people because it seemed too good to be true. ... I always loved them and they mean a lot to me. They mean a lot to my family and I’m now proud to be a part of that family, being a chipmunk. Haha.
B: For the voice did you have to have your voice modified through digital technology or was it just you working with what you had?
M: It’s a really weird process. You speak in a certain pattern and you have to speak a lot slower and more deliberately for the process in which they speed the voice up and they sort of change the pitch. So it’s sort of working in tandem with the technologies. It’s a really tricky process. People are like, oh anyone can do a chipmunk voice — all you do is speed it up — but there’s definitely far more to it than that.
B: Do you have a life motto that you live by that you can share with our aspiring models, actors, directors, produces, or writers?
M: It’s in a song and it really hit home for me: “Expect the worst and hope for the best.”
B: Thank you so much for the interview. It was great getting to know you.
Brian Shen ’11 (bshen@fas) thinks Simon the Chipmunk is pretty cool.