Kirsten Vangsness – Diani & Devine Meet The Apocalypse

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) Diani & Devine Meet The Apocalypse is about to come out and I’m super excited for it. I’m about to shoot a movie called Stuck and I’m doing a bunch of creative things. I have a bunch of things I’m writing and going to start putting up. I have a web series that I’m writing that is almost in a place where I can share about it. Also, the movie that I made Kill Me Deadly is out on iTunes and Amazon. I’m in Aisha Tyler’s movie Axis and I have another movie called Dave Made a Maze that will come out next year. I’m also on Amanda Palmer’s new dance song. It’s called “On The Door” and it’s a silly dance song. Sarah Silverman is in it, Patton Oswalt and I’m in it for a hot second.

Q) How did you get involved with the film?

A) I know them from having watched them perform and they are just not only brilliant, but relevant and smart and really weird. Then, they wrote this movie that is completely equivalent to that. It’s such a joy to do that kind of thing because it puts another moment in your life where you are like, “Oh! I get to play with those people!” It just feels good to make something in community, especially something like that. It’s a funny, interesting strange take. Everyone freaks out in our world because a bunch of scary things happen that I think it is just important to be able to laugh at scary things.

Q) What made you want to be a part of it?

A) I saw Diani & Devine perform at a theater probably four years ago and then I met them afterwards. Then, I thought they were so great that the theater company I’m in does a performance marathon and I told the girls that we had to try to get these people. They performed there and I sort of followed them around and watched them and thought they were just funny. They wrote me and said they were making this movie and asked if I would be in it. I did the movie and they cast me as a really sweet, very connected to the Earth kind of flower girl hippie child who has a deep love for a powerful rifle. There are a lot of guns. She is in a relationship with Arye Gross. Right after we filmed that (about six months), I was co-writing Nelson’s Sparrow, which is the episode of “Criminal Minds” where we find out that Gideon has died…I was writing that and thinking about who could play the bad guy. They couldn’t find anyone perfect for the role and I suggested Arye Gross. They thought they couldn’t get him because he was “too fancy” and I said, “No! I just did a movie with him!” So, I went on Facebook and wrote him. He said yes and so he was on the show after having played peace loving people who carry a big automatic rifle.

Q) Did your character evolve from how she was originally described to you?

A) They live on a commune and they are really lovely, sweet people but Diani and Devine try to come on our property. We won’t let them because we are rationing out our water and our full arsenal of weaponry. But she is very sweet, but a little dumb. It is not like sometimes we are improvising and sometime we are using a script. I’m super excited to see it all in its connected pieces. I’m but a spoke in that wheel, but it is a really big wheel with a lot of good actors in it. And a lot of the people in the film are a part of the Los Angeles theater community that also happen to have illustrious film and television careers. It’s a neat thing to come together to make this.

Q) Where do you connect with your character?

A) The nice thing about acting is if I have to connect with characters then when I got the job of Penelope Garcia I would have had to say I couldn’t take it because I know nothing about computers. The good thing is I don’t totally have to get it. I just have to put it on and that’s sort of the nice thing about playing parts. As long as you can put it on, we often times don’t know enough about ourselves to know exactly what we’re doing. So, it is okay to suspend your disbelief when playing a character. I think that for her where I connected was that I was raised as a super left wing bleeding heart liberal. But that doesn’t mean that someone who thinks the exact opposite side of me isn’t a lovely person. So, just because I am ferociously for gun control doesn’t mean that someone who isn’t is not a good person. It’s easy to make these platitudes about, “Well, you must be crazy because you think so polar different than me.” Really, both sides are going for the exact same thing, which is “this is the way I think the world works.” Nobody is a bad person. They are just expressing and using different proper nouns and a different way of getting something – things that light up for them that are important. So, I think that with this character there are things that light up that are important. Essentially, the kernel of this character is that she is a big ball of love, which I am. That’s kind of my favorite place to be in my personage so it’s not hard. The rest of it is kind of fun!

Q) What were some of your memorable moments from filming?

A) I got to watch them make a movie, which was incredible. To watch your friends have to wear so many hats at the same time is really astonishing. One moment Etta is being an actress and the next she’s looking behind the camera. The next moment Gabe is doing this. It is really amazing when any of your friends can do that. The episode of “Criminal Minds” we’re filming now Matthew [Gray Gubler] is directing and it is amazing having to watch someone put on all those hats within minutes is really something else. When we were shooting it, my biggest memory was that I was going through a very sad breakup while we were filming. I was really out of my tree. I remember how sweet Gabe was to me while we were shooting because I was so out of it. Then, he would pat me on the back and we’d go shoot something. I remember being in this weird state where I would be playing around and having so much fun and then being in that weird foggy state you are in where you are like, “What’s going on with my life? Who am I?” And I got to meet so many cool, different people that all are playing these weird characters. I hadn’t met them before shooting so Arye, Kitty [Swink], Harry [Groener] and Armin [Shimerman] – I’m shooting stuff without having met them. I only knew them from the guise of these characters we are playing. That was fun.

Q) Why do you think people should take their time to see the movie?

A) I think it’s really weird. [laughs] And I do think there is a market for weird. And it’s sweet and it’s funny. They manage to be funny and have such great chemistry. We live in a world now where you have these ideal couplings of the way people should be – the way you think of couples. They are like the perfect couple. They are the perfect alternative comedy duo and it is shrouded in this perfect apocalyptic theme which brings anxiety to people and is looked at in a twist of a way. So, I think it appeals to different sensibilities and it is sweet. You can never go wrong with that! It’s weird and it’s sweet. Those are the best things. And it has animals in it!

Q) Is there anything else about the film you want to be sure fans know?

A) It will be at the Austin Film Festival in October. The last thing I heard there will be some other places possibly where you can see it soon.

Q) And everyone is loving that Paget Brewster will be back on “Criminal Minds!”

A) It’s great that she is back! It’s neat because the fans’ reflection of that was, “Oh my gosh! She’s back,” which is pretty much what we were all doing. And I just found out the day everyone found out. She couldn’t tell anyone. It makes a lot of sense that she is now the head of the team. This is our first episode with this happening, but it is just lovely.

Q) What has it been like having Paget back on set?

A) Here’s the thing…It’s a great job. It’s a great, amazing group of people. It really always has been. It is the biggest (by far) “real acting job” I’ve ever had. So, I don’t know from anything so different. I feel so lucky that it is so great, but the dynamic right now with her being in charge is so delightful. There is an elephant in the room where it could make someone think I’m saying it was horrible before. No, I’m not saying that. We all love Thomas [Gibson]. That’s not in question and that thing is very private and personal. I don’t need to prove that to anybody. But it’s LOVELY to have her there! It’s so great and right. Life happens how it happens. We don’t have any control over anybody’s actions, but our own. In terms of the chips falling – this is how they fell. I think all of us are really okay with that. It doesn’t seem fair to have this much fun solving murders and crimes. What is funny is that the first couple of scenes, Paget spent a lot of time saying “Does this sound like her” and “Am I doing it right?” It was weird. It was weird like. It has just been really wild and really fun and a lot of discovery. There has been a lot of discovery for all of us, but really great.

Q) What else is new this season on “Criminal Minds?”

A) We have the introduction of the new guy. I met him the first day we shot. So, I met Adam Rodriguez the first day Penelope Garcia is going to meet Luke Alvez. I meet him and we are sitting there talking. He’s delightful and I almost immediately love him. Then, we go to shoot a scene and it is amazing how much Penelope Garcia vehemently hates him. It is so different than how I feel about him. It was weird to be like, “Hey! Hi!” I couldn’t even look at him. They actually had a scene together last year that was cut where Penelope stares at Morgan’s old office and says, “I’m going to hate whoever is in there.” And they are like, “No, you’re not going to hate him,” but I’m like, “No, I am. I am.” They cut it, but I think that’s kind of where she is coming from. There is some warming up as it goes along. But she is still floundering. That’s my experience of her. There has been a lot of change. I think we’re all trying to get our sea legs. And we forget we are on a TV show! You kind of care about the culture of it so it is a strange thing. Everyone is trying to work out where they fit and we don’t really know. I hope that the journey of figuring that out will be interesting to people.