Harvey Guillén finds his light: The What We Do in the Shadows star on pride, perseverance, and Puss in Boots
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Harvey Guillén wants people to stop coming out.
"It should be called, 'letting you in,'" says the queer actor. "'I'm letting you in, and what you do with that information is your choice.' Sometimes the hardest thing is to let someone in. It's such a vulnerable thing. But this person 'coming out' knew who they were — they just finally felt comfortable telling you who they are."
Letting someone in may be a vulnerable act, but EW's 2023 Pride cover star proves time and again that he's not afraid to leap headfirst into the unknown (not to mention a giant martini glass). Most recently, the What We Do in the Shadows actor made his Met Gala debut in signature gender-norm-bucking form, his pink tweed Christian Siriano suit complemented by pearl necklaces, giant cloth roses, and a silky tiered train flowing down to his glossy black-heeled shoes.
"It was just surreal. I mean, I grew up watching the Gala and it was like the who's who in fashion and pop culture," says Guillén, who hosted the E! red carpet show before heading into the event. "I guess Anne Hathaway wasn't really doing interviews, but she came over to me and complimented my outfit and then we started talking. She was wearing couture Versace, and I got to meet Donatella. That was a pinch-me moment."
Not bad for a queer Latine man who grew up thinking he'd never be embraced in Hollywood, "a business that sometimes overshadows stories like ours."
The son of Mexican immigrants who took a leap of their own, the native Angeleno adopted the name Harvey in elementary school when his teacher couldn't pronounce his given name, Javier. "It didn't even dawn on me, but I was changing my name for the comfort of someone else," the 33-year-old says now. And it wouldn't be the last time he'd be asked to hide part of himself.
Guillén fell in love with acting after catching Annie on TV, and at age 6 collected cans to pay for his first improv classes at the local community center. "I would literally have dreams of being on a Hollywood set," he says. But his dreams were met with skepticism: "I was told right off the bat that there was no place for me," the actor recalls of being in high school when he got his first agent, who themself was queer and Latino. "He said, 'You should try and 'pass' because you're not going to get a lot of work. I mean, you're already round and brown…' And I was like, 'And proud!'
"To me, pride means to live without fear — to be completely your authentic self and be happy and live without fear," explains the Critics Choice Award nominee, who last year expanded beyond his success on Shadows (returning July 13 on FX) to scene-steal opposite his "idols" Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas as the perennially positive Perrito in the Oscar-nominated Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. And he'll voice another young pup in Will Ferrell's star-studded movie Strays, releasing Aug. 18, the same day he enters the DC Cinematic Universe as part of the groundbreaking Latin American cast of Blue Beetle. "Once I realized that those strikes against me were my strengths, then everything shifted," he says. "If you don't see yourself, then become the first. Change the narrative."
That Oprah-esque musing is just one of many imparted by the actor during a lengthy chat that brings not only the actor to tears but also the entire crew waiting to douse him in shimmering confetti. Whether reflecting on his barrier breaking, opening up about a childhood trauma, or effortlessly rattling off some Wicked in Japanese, one thing is undeniably clear: Harvey Guillén is not afraid of letting you in.
Bronson Farr for EW Harvey Guillén for EW's 2023 Pride cover
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You really do seem to live your life so unabashedly. Were you always comfortable in your own skin?
HARVEY GUILLÉN: I remember a time where I knew I was different. When I was younger, I knew that I just acted different. I had different feelings. I had crushes, and I thought, "Why? Is that normal? Because I'm being told by my surroundings that it's not." I grew up in a very machismo culture, and so my mannerisms were too feminine and people would point them out. "Stand like a man." "Talk like a boy." Things like that are kind of a death by a thousand cuts. Those microaggressions at a young age really push you back into a place of like, "Well, what am I doing wrong? How do I portray what you want me to be?" We're always trying to please a person who's not satisfied with who we are. We have no one to please but ourselves. And when you realize that all that matters is that you're happy with who you are when you look in the mirror, then everyone else can go F off.
Was your family always supportive of you being yourself?
I remember going to visit my grandma in Mexico as a kid. I was really excited, and I brought my Tonka truck — which was pretty boyish, I thought. Now, my mom let me be myself. She never tried to hinder me to be something that I wasn't. But she reminded me to be really nice and polite to everyone because it was pretty poor in the neighborhood: "Bring your toys and you can share them with everyone." So I was really excited to share these toys with these kids in the rancho. And when I got to them, all the boys stood up and they're like, "My brother says we can't play with you, porque se dice es mariposa [which translates to] because you're a butterfly." I didn't know what that word meant in that context.
I was like, "Well, what's wrong with being a butterfly? They're beautiful and they're fabulous." But, to them, it was a bad thing. "That's disgusting. Boys should not be butterflies. That's not good." And I felt this guilt in my stomach thinking that something was terribly wrong with me. But I didn't understand it, and I didn't know what else to do because these emotions were coming up. So I said, "Well, I don't want to play with you anyways." And I grabbed my toys and I was walking away. They kept chanting it over and over, "Mariposa! Mariposa!" And even though the word itself was beautiful to me, it had become tarnished and negative. [Tears begin rolling down his face.]
As I walked away, I could hear them saying it louder and louder. And as I turned around, I looked up and saw something flashing by. It was a rock. And it cut the top of [my eyebrow.] You could see, here, the scar where it cut me. And I realized, I'd just been gay bashed for being different. I was just a kid and it broke my heart. All I wanted to do was play with these kids to share who I was.
Here I was, covered in blood and dirt, and I ran to my mom and I said, "The kids are calling me mariposa. Why are they calling me mariposa?" And she said, "Who cares what they call you? Mariposas are beautiful. Son bellas. Let them call you whatever they want, as long as you know that you're beautiful." So I thank my mom for putting that into my head, but I knew then that was probably not the last time I would experience that. And so I make it a point to fight for our rights —we're not going anywhere! This world is full of mariposas, and you're just lucky to be in their presence." [Pause] Sorry, can I get a tissue? I don't want to do the whole interview with my eyes like this. [Laughs]
I'm sorry to make you relive that. You're a beautiful crier, though.
It's still triggering after all these years. I mean, literally the scar is still on my face. But it's important to share, because there's kids out there who are going to see this and they're going to be on the cover of EW one day.
Did that resilience your mother taught you help when you faced that agent who wanted you to tone things down?
I didn't understand what the problem was with being round and brown. I was like, "Well, there must be because there's a lot of people who look like me and they're not being represented on television." I know I'm not 6 foot 2, blond, blue-eyed, what the traditional leading man is. But I know I can do it and I know I have it in me. What's wrong with this body? "It's just not what Hollywood's looking for." Well, then let's change how we see people and what we define as beautiful and as successful and as leading man, as entertaining, as funny. Let's change that narrative. I never tried to fit myself into a mold. I just kept going at it, being myself and just living and breathing in my body. That's all you can do. That's all you can offer someone.
Bronson Farr for EW Harvey Guillén for EW's 2023 Pride cover
And people wanted what you were offering. You went from being worried about being accepted to, in 2020, the team behind Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist actually casting a part for which they wanted a "Harvey Guillén type." [He would go on to book the role himself.]
[Laughs] Yeah, I heard through the grapevine that they were looking for "a Harvey Guillén type," and I thought, "Well, what is that?" Because I like to think of myself as not fitting into one category. But the fact that I have built something that now people see me as a type — for them to be like, "That's the kind of guy we want…" That didn't exist for me when I was growing up. There was no cookie cutter for me to fit into. There was no mold for me to fill. So for me to carve out this cookie cutter that can fit a lot of us is really nice. It's an original mold, and if it opens a door and leaves it ajar for someone, they're going to create another mold. You know what I mean? We're a full-blown bakery, and we're creating and baking the most delicious treats, and I can't wait to see the next pastries that come after us.
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC Harvey Guillén and Jane Levy on 'Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist'
That mold started forming when you made your debut as Guillermo in the 2019 series premiere of What We Do in the Shadows, FX's adaptation of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement's 2014 vampire comedy of the same name.
I love playing Guillermo de la Cruz, getting to see how he's grown over the last five seasons. We started with Guillermo being very submissive and quiet. It was important to me that we didn't make him feel too much like he was a slave to [his vampire,] Nandor [played by Kayvan Novak]. And being one of the only people of color on the show, I was like, "That doesn't sound like the direction we should be taking." And the writers and everyone agreed. But the whole story with Guillermo is that he's more than meets the eye. Sometimes we categorize people so easily because of the way they look — their background, their education, their financial status — and you can't underestimate anybody.
Even though he's a familiar — someone who serves the vampires — he really seems more powerful than all of them.
And yet he lives underneath the staircase, because he's put there by other people. His circumstances are presented by the job that he took — by his boss, by the people he chooses to be friends with. Sometimes you've got to take a look around and say, "Who do you surround yourself with?" There's the old saying, "Show me who your friends are, and I'll show you who you are." And unfortunately, he's hanging out with a bunch of a-holes, but he loves them. They become his chosen family. The reason the fans really cheer for Guillermo is because they see themselves represented in him. We're all go-getters and we're all meant to thrive, and we should be cheering each other on.
Russ Martin/FX What We Do in the Shadows
In season 4 last year, Guillermo came out to his family as gay…
That episode is very near and dear to my heart. I think Guillermo got bullied a lot when he was little. A lot of queer people are, especially when you're young and people around you don't understand that you're different and how to approach that. And Guillermo fell into a world of fantasy where he longed to be a vampire because what are vampires? They live forever. They're immortal. They're usually very hot. They're usually very rich. He wanted that life where no one could mess with him.
But his coming out was really special because he's torn between his chosen family and his biological family. The Van Helsing side of him, his family, wants to kill Nadja [played by Natasia Demetriou]. And Nadja is a natural killer of humans. He's in the middle. And the only reason he comes out… It's not because he's ready. He uses it as a buffer to say, "Please don't hurt each other because I have my chosen family with Nadja and I have my biological family with you, and I love both of you very much." His coming out was only meant for someone else. And usually that is the case, coming out is usually for someone else's benefit — to make them feel comfortable. And so he was doing it to buffer the situation and be like, "Okay, she's not my girlfriend because I'm gay."
And then silence.
That silence was just like what a lot of people feel when they do come forward and let people in. I remember my personal experience of letting my mom in, and that anxiety that comes with it, because it's like, "I don't know what you're going to say. I don't know how you'll react to this. Will you still love me?" That's my biggest fear. And so letting my mom in, I remember in that little second of just a pause in between. You're like, "Do you still..." And my mom was like, "Pues, está bien. Lo que tú quieras hacer" [which loosely translates to "It's okay, be who you are"]. And it felt like this weight on my shoulders dropped and I could breathe. It's like this whole thing you've been carrying for so long sheds off and for the first time you're taking a deep breath into your newfound lungs — your rib cage expanding for the first time in the real body, in the real essence of who you are.
Bronson Farr for EW Harvey Guillén for EW's 2023 Pride cover
Your effervescence is a trait shared with Puss in Boots' Perrito, another character in search of a chosen family.
I think Perrito is a character that we can all kind of aspire to. He looks at everything as the glass half full. He's had a horrible past. I mean, the first time I ever saw him raise his little sweater shirt and see the scar on his stomach, I was like, "What is the backstory there?" And also the way he tells the story… We make light of things because that's how we cope with things. Sometimes we need to check on our friends. Sometimes we do need to talk to someone. I think Perrito wants to be a therapy dog because he himself has gone through a lot of stuff and wishes that other people don't have to feel the things that probably he got to feel.
DreamWorks Animation Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Perrito (Harvey Guillén) in 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'
I think many of us in the LGBTQIA+ community want to look at the glass as half full, but staying positive can be hard amid the soul-crushing legislation designed to push back the strides toward equality made over the past decade.
With what's happening across the nation with our trans brothers and sisters, I think that it's more important now than ever to be as loud as we can be, to create the queerest content we can, to show that we're here and we're not going anywhere. We have to show those kids who might be stuck in a situation or a town where they feel like there's no hope, that there is. And we can use entertainment as that window. We're using it right now, and we will continue to use it. So if you need an escape, then escape with us because you won't be there for too long. You will join us here on this side soon and have a fabulous life. So just hold on, keep fighting and being yourself.
You practiced what you preach.
You know, it's amazing to go to the Emmys with Shadows, go to the Academy Awards with Puss in Boots, do a cover like this. But when someone comes up to me at a [fan convention] and says I've inspired them, that's the best accolade I'll ever receive. People come up to me on the street and say, "I just never saw myself and I didn't think it was possible. But then I saw you…" If by me just living and breathing makes you chase your dreams, then I think my work here is done.
Bronson Farr for EW Harvey Guillén for EW's 2023 Pride cover
Directed and Photographed by Bronson Farr
DP: Rachel Bickert; Steadicam Op: Don Turner; Gaffer: Monty Sloan; 1st AC: Melissa Baltierra; Key Grip: Nathan Kadota; BBG: Tanner Kuhn; BBE: Michael Tellup; 1st Photo Assistant: Tom Kordenbrock; 2nd Photo Assistant: Corey Myers; Digital Tech: Nick Caiazza; Color Correction: Keyhan Bayegan; Music: Sean Ursani; Vocals: Jackie Lipson
Styling: Michael Fusco/Exclusive Artists; Stylist Assistant: Ryan Nichols; Tailor: Merianny Villarroel; Hair: Danni Katz/Balmain Hair Couture/TMG; Makeup: Romie Macedo; Set Design: Green House Creative
Photo Director: Alison Wild; Head of Video: Kristen Harding; Creative Director: Chuck Kerr; Senior Video Producer: Ethan Bellows
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