GUILLERMO DÍAZ: THE PUFF PUFF PRINCE

Díaz’ powerfully diverse credits in film and television, ranging from Broad City to High Manentance to the iconic Half Baked, have earned him the title of the most legendary gay stoner of our time. Between smart jokes, fond memories and details on lighting up with Parker Posey, the adorable funnyman reminds us why we have been so obsessed with him for so long.

JASON RODGERS: If you're listening to this recording, follow the sound of my voice. We're here with Toni Colette.

GUILLERMO DIAZ: Hello everyone. It's so lovely to be here.

JR: Is there a Toni Colette performance that you love?

GD: Um, probably the Sixth Sense.

JR: Oh, Hereditary is so good. I know people that went as that girl for Halloween. 

GD: Oh, my God. 

JR: Some people really feel connected to Hereditary, like horror people.

GD: Yeah. I love horror, but I wouldn't go as the little girl from Hereditary. I'm the guy that dresses up like Michael Myers. 

JR: Do you know that that mask was actually…

GD: William Shatner? Yes. I went to a Halloween party once at a friend's and I walked in as Michael Myers and stayed in character the whole time. I would just walk to a corner, stand there and stare at everyone. I did that for hours. I was so high.

JR: Is that your favorite Guillermo Díaz performance ever?

GD: One of them, yes. It was so great.

JR: What do you think of the reality of a gay weed magazine? Is that something you ever thought would ever happen? 

GD: I love it. Well, the first person I ever smoked weed with was another gay man. Weed has been in the gay community forever. So, it's not that far fetched that there's a gay weed magazine. I fucking love it. I smoked for the first time with Harry Birckmayer, who wrote Party Girl with Daisy Von Scherler. He sparked up a joint and we smoked in Chelsea. I got so high. It was so much fun.

JR: Where did you grow up? I feel like you're a New York kid.

GD: I grew up in New York City in Washington Heights. In the eighties in the Heights on 172nd Street between Haven and Fort Washington. My parents moved to Jersey when I was in my late twenties. I lived with them for a year or two and was going back and forth to LA and then I finally moved to LA.

JR: What was the gay/gay-weed/weed scene in the Heights growing up?

GD: Well, I didn't smoke weed until I was in my mid twenties, but you know, during the eighties in Washington Heights there was a ton of weed around, but it was also a time where drug dealers were hanging out on every corner, selling whatever they were selling. I remember getting mugged all the time. I got mugged like so many countless times. So it was a very sort of dangerous, scary time, but at the same time, growing up in the eighties in New York City, was the best ever. It was just such a creative and electric and fucking alive time. I loved it.

JR: Was it a lot like Lisa Lisa, freestyle and all that stuff?

GD: Yeah! Lisa Lisa was actually my first concert. It was Lisa Lisa and Expose at Radio City Music Hall.

JR: What was Michelle Visage’s band? Seduction?

GD: Oh, Seduction. Yeah. “It takes two to make a thing go right…” I went to high school in the Bronx, so it was a little different.

JR: Did you go to a performing arts high school or anything like that?

GD: No, I went to a Catholic high school called St. Nicholas of Tolentine. It was just a regular high school. I would take the bus to the Bronx and back into the city. 

JR: Did you act when you were younger?

GD: The first time I was ever on stage, I did a talent show when I was 17. I was a sophomore in high school and my friends were doing a medley of songs from the Beastie Boys and lip syncing. One of our friends dropped out and my friends asked me to be in it. I was playing Mike D. It was two nights of performances and it was the first time I was ever on stage. I was like, “Oh, my god, this is what I wanna do.” I fell in love with performing and being on stage from that.

JR: Did your fame lead you to meet the Beastie Boys?

GD: No, never, but the director of Half Baked, Tamara Davis, is married to Mike D, so [at the time] I got to meet him with her in Toronto while we were shooting. We smoked weed with him and Tamara and Dave. It was very surreal. I didn't meet the other Beastie Boys. 

JR: In Half Baked, it’s a group of friends who all sell weed. Have you ever sold weed in your life?

GD: I never did. I had friends that did. I was afraid I was gonna be the one to get caught. Like you were talking about flying with weed. I'm such an anxious, nervous person that I would just have a heart attack if anyone caught me.

JR: It’s your Catholic school upbringing.

GD: Yes. My Catholic guilt.

JR: Before I even knew you were gay – probably before I even knew I was gay – I was really obsessed with [your character] Scarface in Half Baked. His clothes were the most influential thing on me when I was young. Is there anything that you remember wearing or loving or a look of his that you were really connected to?

GD: Yeah. I love his look when he's burying Killer.

JR: That's my favorite Scarface look ever!

GD: Yeah. It's super edgy.  He's got green slacks with a sort of a burgundy-orange suit jacket. Super mismatched, but still really cool. Like he just went through his closet and found the dressiest shit he had in there. It was kind of tacky, but really, you know, edgy and cool at the same time. 

JR: Scarface's character aesthetic is also in [your character in] Party Girl. Is that something that you brought to them or did people just repeatedly see you as that? I mean, that was like the cool Latin-guy-nineties-vibe. 

GD: I think I brought a lot of that with me and it was kind of a part of me and that's kind of what they liked about me, I think. Scarface was also written as a super hyper and angry dude. So part of it was the character as well. But as far as the look, yeah. Even as Leo in Party Girl, a lot of the stuff I wore were my own clothes. We melded well together, the character and myself. So it was a little bit of both.

JR: Even though I've known you for years, I've always pretended to not know who you are so I could get to ask you this stuff one day. It's actually making me realize that you were Scarface.

GD: I'm looking at myself now and I'm like… that’s Scarface. It's so weird. It's such a trippy thing.

JR: With Party Girl, you were making a movie about partying in the nineties while partying in the nineties. What was that like making that movie? Was it as epic as it captures or was it already passe?

GD:  No, it was so epic. It was so cool. I was always that nerd guy. I grew up in the eighties and was partying in the nineties and was going to the clubs, but 90% of the time I was getting turned away. Back in the day you had to wait and get picked to get into Limelight, to get into The Tunnel, to get into Red Zone. So a lot of times I would just be standing there and never get picked. A lot of times we would be let in and it was fine. It wasn't until I was in the movies that I was sort of experiencing what it was like to be a cool club-goer. While we were doing the movie, I got really close with Parker [Posey], so we would go out together all the time to The Tunnel and other clubs. She was the it girl at the time, so we would just get into everywhere. She would take me everywhere. I never met anyone like her. I remember auditioning for Party Girl and one of the first times I auditioned with her, she just took the script outta my hand and was like, “Let's just do it. Let's not even do the lines. Let's just make this up.” And we just did scenes and didn't even say the lines from the script. She was that girl who didn't care and lived outside of the box and it was so different. I had never experienced anyone like her. 

And most of the clothes that she wore in that movie were her clothes and her shoes. That was her. It was just one of the best times of my life making that movie. I'll never forget it. It was so special. 

JR: She's like the ultimate it girl. Indie queen.

GD: Yeah, she is. I had so many great experiences. I remember smoking weed with her and having a blast. I remember in our shower scene, I'm supposed to kiss her. She was like, “Just go for it just.” I remember like tonguing her down, making out. I had never really done [a scene like that]. Then later on, when you do certain movies, you're like, “Okay, I can't stick my tongue down… Christina Ricci’s throat,” when I’m making out with her in 200 Cigarettes or whatever. Parker, she was just super cool and chill. 

JR: It'll never be the same. Your character Leo in that is a DJ. Have you ever DJ'ed?

GD: When I first booked the movie, they hooked me up with our music supervisor. He was a DJ and took me around the city and I would go and DJ with him. I would stand with him and he would be like, “Look, this is what I do now.” It was old school. It was records.

JR: When she reorganizes Leo's records, he can't find them easily in a nightclub in the dark…

GD: I don't know if you remember that scene, when I'm rattling off artists and songs. I say Madonna - “Up Down Suite.” That was me who put that in there. I was like, “Can I say this?”

And when I auditioned for Party Girl – I know this because Harry [Birckmayer] and Daisy [Von Scherler] became my friends – I talked about Madonna a lot. I don't even know why I brought her up. But at one point the casting director called my manager and said, “You have to tell him to stop talking about Madonna.” I had five callbacks, they kept bringing me back. I didn't get the role right away. I got in trouble for talking about it. Later, Harry and Daisy were like, “That's not true! We didn't care.” I think it was just the casting director who was pressed that I kept mentioning Madonna.

JR: Favorite Madonna era? I know all you Madonna fans. It's not Desperately Seeking Susan, it's not MDNA, it's not the flapper dress. What is it?

GD: My god, it's so many.

JR: Favorite album?

GD: Probably favorite album and era is Erotica. I love that whole vibe and era. I love her look the best during the Blonde Ambition tour. Not even during the show. Like, when she would go out while she was touring to parties and to different events. How she looked during that time was the dopest, in my opinion. That was the Madonna that I fell in love with. 

Blonde Ambition was the first time I saw her on stage, watching her on the bed. I remember being in the audience and thinking, “Oh, my god, what is happening?” You can imagine, this was like ‘91 and the biggest artist in the universe is masturbating on a bed on stage. It was the most mind blowing thing I had ever seen. I couldn't stop loving her since then. I couldn't take my eyes off her since that moment on. It was almost like there was a silence in the audience because no one could believe it. Anyay, I'll stop talking about her jerking off on stage. 

JR: No, no, this is a safe Madonna space. We love Madonna. Everybody loves Madonna. I am even starting to get used to her look. Far less jarring, I will say that. I don't know what she's doing, but keep it up girl.

GD: Yes, yes, yes. It is far less jarring. You're right.

JR: I was gonna ask you if you could smoke weed with one person who would it be? But I feel like we already know the answer from this interview. What would you say to the queen of pop if you were smoking one down with Madge herself. 

GM: I would ask her what her top five books that she would recommend for me to read. 

JR: That's so wild because like I've gotten four amazing book recommendations from Madonna. Not personally, but one book she gave me that is probably in my top five, is that book Sapiens.

GD: I haven't read that. 

JR: You would love it. It's about the entire history of us as a species. it's really, really good, but Madonna gave me that and it's written by a gay Israeli, so…

GD: Oh wow. I'm gonna read that. And it's nonfiction obviously, right? 

JR: It's almost written like a really long New York Times article. I love books like that. 

GD: Man, I'm gonna buy that shit tomorrow.

JR: Any final thoughts on Madonna? Anything you wanna say. Even if you wanna just speak right to the camera. If you wanna say something to Madonna, we can maybe get her a message.

GD: I love when she was acting. There's this movie that not a lot of people have seen called Dangerous Game that Abel Ferrara directed. Harvey Keitel is in it. Madonna is the lead female in it and she's so good. I would love to see her act again. I don't know if she ever will. I know she’s been vocal about not wanting to do it again but I think she's a really, really wonderful actress. I'm an actor too. We've all had those moments where we weren't very good but she's fucking awesome when she really gets into it. I wish she would come back to the silver screen and do another movie. 

JR: From Madonna to Chappelle Show, here we go. What Chappelle’ appearances did you have?

GD: I did one where I was with Charo. It was a skit on stereotypes and Charo appears on my shoulder trying to get me to do cocaine. We did another spoof on Half Baked in one of the Chappelle Show sketches too. My favorite was probably “Pop Copy” because it was the first one and the most epic one. It's the one that most people remember. 

JR: Do people see you and know you from the Chappelle Show? What do they say?

GD: Yeah. They either say “Wrap it up, wrap that shit up!” Or they'll, you know, say stuff like, “I am the manager!”

JR: In that world of sketch comedy, are there a lot of standups versus actors? You guys look like you had a good mix of standups and actors.

GD: Even in Half Baked, I think everyone was a standup, except for me. Literally everybody; Harland Williams, Jim Brewer, Dave [Chappelle], Janeane Garofalo. Almost everyone that was in that film was a standup… But not me. I was just an actor.

JR: Do you have ambitions to do standup, like Madonna?

GD: No, not at all. I'll leave that to her.

JR: When we were doing our shoot, you got recognized on the street pretty quickly. Does anyone think you're someone else and who do they think you are?

GD: Sometimes. I've gotten confused with… Sometimes people will be like, “I love you in Prison Break.” I never saw the show, but there's a guy with a shaved head in it, but he's like, way hot. I mean, not that I'm not hot…

JR: You’re hot. 

GD: The other day somebody stopped me and was like, “I love you on The Blacklist,” or one of those shows. And I said, “Oh, I'm not on The Blacklist,” and the woman literally said, “Yes, you are.” She was mad. I just kept walking. 

JR: There's something about seeing people in the television and then seeing them on the street. It causes some parts in people's brains to have an aneurysm, literally. Like you came out of the TV. It’s like Mars Attacks.

GD: Or sometimes they feel like they know you, but they don't know where. They think it might be from school or something. 

JR: Are you more indica or sativa when you smoke weed?

GD: Sativa. Sativa or hybrid. As far as strains, I don’t really care. If you tell me it’s a sativa-hybrid, I’m smoking it. I'm a big joint guy. I buy pre-rolls a lot. 

JR: What do you think joints offer you that edibles don’t?

GD: I love sharing a joint with someone. I love passing it back and forth. I love the whole experience of sharing it in a group or just with another person. 

JR: The ritual.

GD: Yeah. Of sharing this weed stick with somebody.

JR: You were also in so many contemporary shows that people from this millennial generation are into. But, your High Maintenance episode was so serious. It was like a play. 

GD: There's always weed involved in that show in some way because [the lead Sinclair] is selling weed and he’s a huge stoner.

JR: And you follow him. He becomes the thread. But your episode doesn't really have that element to it.

GD: Which is what I love so much about that show. I hadn't watched the show at all until after I filmed it, which I love because now I'm such a huge fan of High Maintenance that I feel like if I would've known it before, I would've been a lot more sort of self conscious and nervous shooting it. I remember being on set the first day and this guy comes up to me and he's like, “Oh, I'm so glad you're here with us,” and I was like, “Okay dude, thank you,” thinking this guy must be a fan or something with his beard and messy hair. And then we started shooting and I'm like, “Oh, you're the creator of the show.” But he's brilliant and they've created such a special gem. It's like no other. It encapsulates the energy of New York City so well, or at least the New York City that I wanna be a part of. I got to act with Rosie Perez, which was dope. She smokes weed, so I got to chill and puff with her, which was awesome. She's awesome.

JR: Have you ever worked with her before?

GD: I hadn't, no. 

JR: Then you have an amazing guest appearance in Broad City, which is like the ultimate, the original weed show. And you played a gay character, which was also so amazing.

GD: The Scandal cast got invited to the white house correspondents dinner when Obama was still in office and we went to the Vanity Fair after party. Ilana [Glazer] and Abbi [Jacobson] were there as well and we were like, “Oh my god, we're huge fans,” and they were like, “We're fans of you guys too! You guys wanna smoke?” We went outside and all got stoned together. Then, years later, they asked me to do Broad City. I did four episodes and Ilana was directing one of them. That's a show that I was already a fan of. I thought, I can't fuck this up, you know? I loved it so much and I hope I didn't. That was a super amazing experience. 

JR: I was gonna ask you about your appearance on Girls, but now it just seems completely moot, since we talked about that amazing correspondence dinner, smoking weed with Broad City. I don't think Lena Dunham needs to come into this equation.

GD: I love Lena Dunham. I love Girls too.

JR: You have the ability to become a character rather than act like who you are in your real life and I think you don't get enough credit for that specific thing. You've made it into so many zeitgeist-y elements for this entire generation of kids while still being on ABC family, you know? 

GD: I love working with different photographers. I love being creative in that way. I love photography so I'll sort of seek them out. I just worked with one called Dumb Dumb the Clown. Have you heard of him? He'll paint your face as a clown…And sometimes guys will want to be painted up…And then [Dumb Dumb] will fuck them on camera and photograph it. And the guys are into it because they're painted as a clown, so they get to do this freaky shit and nobody will know who they are. Anyway, I didn't do that, but I just love…

JR: (addressing the editor) Cut that part out at the end, please. No one will believe that anyway. You just sold that shit so hard that I thought we were about to see the premiere of Dumb Dumb the Clown, starring...for your viewing pleasure… 

GD: I love it anyway.

JR: Did you ever get fucked as a clown? Answer the question!

GD: I did not, but I have nothing against it. I think it's super hot, but I just wanted to be photographed by him. And I wanted him to make me up as a clown, but I did tell him, “Listen, I have to be fully clothed.“ I just wanted to work with him because I thought it was so different and sort of punk rock and edgy. So, like you said, I'll be on ABC, but then do shit like that. Then, my people will be like, “What the fuck are you doing?” But, inside, I'm an artist too. Doing everything by the book is not that exciting. As an artist I'm drawn to different mediums and working with different people. Anyway, I'm not trying to be put in a fucking box, I guess is my point. 

JR: Boxers or briefs?

GD: I’m briefs. I think I like the way I look more but I also feel like they're more comfortable. But, number one is like, I think they're just hot. I buy like 20 pairs of the same black briefs. 

JR: Is it black Calvin Klein briefs?

GD: No, it's called this brand Just Us Boys. It's a gay brand. They do really dope underwear.

JR: If I go over to some guy's house and see a pair of black Just Us Boys… 

GD: You’ll know I’ve been there! And if he has a clown face on, you'll be like, “Oh shit!”

JR: We're all really into your Law & Order reboot, but I have to ask you something on behalf of our Buds readers: Is Chris Meloni’s peach emoji all it's cracked up to be?

GD: Yeah. It is. Chris is so cool. And so sweet. He's an avid stretcher, so you look over and you're like, “Oh, there's Chris in a split.” He's always doing stretches.