Filming In Brooklyn

Guillermo Diaz has a resume about a mile and a half long.  He first came on my radar a couple of years ago via Weeds, one of my absolute favorite shows.  He plays a drug dealer who’s become an integral part of the main character’s (Nancy Botwin’s) life on the show.  Last season saw his character (also named Guillermo) turned in to the feds by Nancy for dealing in things other than drugs (guns, girls) and she’s spent some time this season taunting him as he sits in prison.  He plays a menacing, unpredictable character, one that makes the hair stand up on my arms when he threatens people in his slow, sure, tough-guy voice.

I’ve been around actors enough to know that they are not their characters, but often enough they’re cast because their own personalities at least hint at the people they play on screen (meeting Harvey Keitel made me sweat out of every pore on my body, while Robin Williams couldn’t help but be goofy).  When I spoke last month with Guillermo Diaz, I was not really expecting the downright jovial guy on the other end of the phone.  I expected at least a whisper of menace, but there was none.  Guillermo is an incredibly convincing actor.  And he’s been in and around Brooklyn a lot lately, working with such heavy hitters as Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis on the comedy A Couple of Dicks.  But before becoming a sought-after Hollywood guy, he was a picked-on nerd growing up in NYC.

FIB You thought that you were a nerd in high school, yes?

GD Yeah, I didn’t think, I was!  I definitely was.

FIB And now that you’re playing this tough-guy, scary, intimidating role, do you have any dreams of going back to reunions and finding the kids who tormented you?

GD Oh absolutely!  Most of my motivation when playing bad guys is thinking about all the crap I had to put up with in high school.  And I think that’s what motivated me to be an actor as well.  I did a show in my sophemore year of high school, when I was at the height of my nerdness, and somehow the kids loved it and then all those kids that were teasing me wanted to be my friend, and I was like “Wow, I’ve got to do this more.”

FIB You’ve gotten to work with Steven Spielberg [in The Terminal], and that’s like the pinnacle of directors.  Which other directors are on your wish-list to work with?

GD Well, I’m working with a director right now that I’ve always wanted to work with, his name is Kevin Smith.  I’m dying to work with John Cameron Mitchell, who did Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus, I love him.  I’m just obsessed with his work.  I would so love to work with him.  I’m also a huge horror film fan, so I’d love to work with, like, Rob Zombie.  I love his movies.

FIB You’ve been on Weeds for a couple of seasons now.  Do you like working on a series?  Do you like the stability of it?  Or do you like jumping around from film to film?

GD I used to think that I loved jumping around from film to film, but now being on a show like Weeds I think I got really spoiled, and I love that steady work.  Especially when the writing’s so great and the actors are so great, and it’s such a loved show.  I hope they keep my character around as much as they can.

FIB How does it work on a show like Weeds [where deaths, especially among the drug dealers, are pretty common].  Do you get the script each week and read it with your fingers crossed, hoping that you don’t get blown away that episode?

GD [laughs] That’s exactly what it’s like, yeah.

FIB So you wouldn’t get any advance notice?  They wouldn’t warn you, like “Hey, when you get to page 18, sorry!”

GD Um, I think that they might, but I’m not sure!  Usually what happens is, I’ll get a call from my agent saying that they want me for a certain number of episodes, but I don’t know what’s going to happen to my character, what my character’s going to be doing until I get the script the week before.  But I would hope that if they were killing me off, I would get some advance warning!

FIB Yeah, and you would hope that it didn’t come from the costume gal measuring you, saying “Well, we need a suit for your coffin.”

GD Exactly!  Or, “We need to make a hole in the chest of your jacket because you’re going to get shot there.”

I wasn’t sure how comfortable he would be talking about his personal life, but I jumped right in anyway.  I had read that he’s gay (and out), and I’m always fascinated by the lengths some actors go to to hide their sexual orientations, while others just are who they are and it doesn’t seem to hurt their careers one bit.

FIB Forgive me for believing everything I read online, but I’ve read that you’re gay, that you’re openly gay.  I’ve read that you split your time between New York and California.  Do you notice a difference in each place in how you’re treated?

GD You know, it’s funny ’cause in California I live in West Hollywood, which is predominantly a gay neighborhood, so I never really think about…it never seems to be too judgey, it’s just accepted, and I just feel very comfortable in my neighborhood in California.  And at the same time, I was born and raised in New York, and when I’m here I kind-of have that tougher mentality, attidude, like I gotta watch my back, and I’m a lot more guarded in New York.  But I think that overall, even when I audition for stuff, nobody ever brings up that I’m gay.  I mean I’m out, and I’m open about it, but I think that’s what keeps people from making a big deal about it, because I don’t make a big deal about it…It kind of takes that mystery or that secret away.  Nobody really cares.  And if people do have a problem with it, they don’t say it to my face.  So I’m sure that some people probably don’t want to work with me because I’m gay, but at the same time I don’t want to work with them either, if they’re going to have that attitude, so it’s all good.  I’m just gonna keep being myself.  I can only be myself.  And I’m not gonna hide who I am, because there’s nothing wrong with it.  That’s the way I have to live my life for my own sanity.

You can see Guillermo Diaz in Weeds – Season 4, which is now out on DVD.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn. Have a location shooting tip or some on location pictures? Please email Amy, or text the pictures to Amy@FilmingInBrooklyn.com, or tweet the pictures to @FilmingBrooklyn.

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