Agnes, Gubler And Our Early Christmas

Agnes, Gubler And Our Early Christmas

The long sabbatical is over. I was in the wilderness for a while. Deep in the wilderness. I have since traversed the wild and made it home.

I met a lot of interesting people on my French leave. Many stories to tell. Here is a short one...

I got to do a phone interview with Matthew Gray Gubler. He is one of the stars of the TV show Criminal Minds and he turns in a very funny performance as Joseph Gorden-Levitt's best friend in 500 Days Of Summer. He is also quite adored by my friend, not gonna use her real name yet, for right now, let's call her Agnes. Agnes, it is fair to say, has the hot sweaty thighs for Mr. Gubler and finds him yummy. When she found out I was interviewing him the look on her face demanded an invitation to listen which she accepted gladly.

When the time came for the interview, mister Gubler was no where to be found. Five minutes pass, still no Gubler. Fifteen minutes, no love. I called his assistant who said we wouldn't have to reschedule, that Matthew was just running late and he'd call in a few minutes. It was worth wait. His first words were "Hey, really sorry I'm late. BTW, I'm really high on painkillers right now".

Christmas comes early for Agnes and me.

I threw out all my prepared questions and we just started talking. To be fair, Matthew had recently taken a pretty bad tumble and his leg was very badly broken as a result. The reason he was late for the interview was because his physical therapy appointment ran long. The injury was so bad that the writers of Criminal Minds had to write it into the script. FYI-spoiler- his character is going to shot in the leg soon. Despite the painkillers, he was in a lot of pain and he still took the interview. Why, you ask, because as Agnes and I were about to find out Matthew Gary Gubler is, in fact, a hell of a guy.

Actors, in general, are very guarded people. They have to be, especially during interviews. Matthew is not. He is completely approachable and unaffected. Talking with him was like sitting down with a new friend over a beer. We started by talking about his latest film to hit dvd, How To Be A Serial Killer. It's a quirky, comedic bloodfest where the public speaking serial killer gives seminars on the merits of murder and how to properly stalk your prey. He takes a young fledgling wanna-be killer (Gubler) under his wing and teaches him the finer art of the craft. While it may take a fairly perverse mind to appreciate, Serial Killer is a lot of fun and should be on your viewing list this October.

Interesting thing about talking to someone high on painkillers, they will tell you anything you might want to know...except the answer to the question you just asked. I don't begrudge him. Mathew is a much more interesting person than any of the questions I had for him. For the record, I tried asking him the standard "what was like filming an indie flick" and "how did you become an actor" type questions. He was much to wily for that. Instead, he told us stories that were charming and funny and that had an endings that had no relationship to how the story began. He talked about why he loves indie film. He gave us his insight about the movie making industry. Agnes swooned many a time.

What started out as a required bit of PR for a movie he made almost a year ago transcended into a subject changing stream of consciousness conversation that spoke to art, film and even, as a byproduct, politics. It's unfortunate that nature of Hollywood fails to foster genuineness off the screen. Fortunate for me that Matthew Gary Gubler is not Hollywood. He is far from it. He is an actor. He is a director. He is a writer. He is, without a doubt, an artist.

And, of course, a hell of a guy.

I will post the full interview when How To Be Serial Killer hits video stores on Tuesday, October 13th.

Make sure you check him out on twitter @gublerland and his website http://www.matthewgraygubler.com/.

Feels like I was gone for a long time. It's good to be home again.

More to come...