John Cabrera: Exclusive Interview

About a month ago I stumbled across a piece of news about John Cabrera, who played the role of Brian Fuller on Gilmore Girls, and his upcoming web series H+. Since then John and I have exchanged a few emails and tweets (twitter.com/johncabrera) and he took some time to do an interview for crushable.com about what he’s been up to.

crushable.com: In the spirit of fun, my first question is a Twitter-inspired one. In 140 characters or less, tell us a little about yourself.

John Cabrera: Thin otaku w/glasses frm Miami. Always tinkerin w/somethin. Never gettin nuff sleep. Freq. 1st degree monitor burns.

crushable.com: Nice! There’s probably an interesting story to that last one! So, I saw from your bio that you attended DePaul’s The Theatre School, but was there something that drew you to acting?

John Cabrera: Well, for most of my childhood I actually thought I would pursue a career in design. I attended a special arts school my first two years of high school. But I didn’t really enjoy it. I think partly because I never felt I truly excelled at it, and also because the silence in those classes drove me crazy. So I decided to enroll in a drama class taught by a beloved writing teacher, and after a week or two I thought, "I can totally do this." The following year I was back at my normal high school living the glamorous life of a full time drama dork. But it wasn’t until I attended DePaul that I actually learned how to act. It was a great school and a rigorous 4 years.

crushable.com: How did you get involved with Gilmore Girls (which was your first role, I believe)?

John Cabrera: On TV, yeah. The short answer is that I auditioned for the role, I booked it, I showed up for work and was like, "hey guys!". But the longer answer is a little stranger… cooler, maybe? A lot of people know that Sean Gunn (Kirk Gleason) and I attended DePaul at the same time, and have been very close friends for nearly 15 years. We even started a short lived theater company in Chicago back in the mid nineties. Anyway, the first year I was in LA (2001) I threw a Christmas party for a bunch of us who weren’t flying home to family. Sean invited his friend Mara Casey who was also a Christmas orphan that year… and who was ALSO one of the casting directors for Gilmore Girls. We hit it off and stayed in touch. In 2002 I performed in a play on the The Mark Taper Forum’s Second Stage that received a fair amount of acclaim. She came to see it and after that started pushing me for roles. I was actually up for one before Brian. And at the time I would have considered it to be a larger role… but it only appeared in one episode. Then when they came up with the concept for the band, Dan Palladino, from what I’m told, called Mara and said, "Can you bring in that really nerdy friend of yours?" Dan Palladino said this, mind you. Half of my wardrobe on the show was inspired by Dan Palladino.

crushable.com: Awesome to be remembered as the ‘nerdy friend’, but that’s definitely the ‘Brian Fuller’ vibe we got.

John Cabrera: Yeah.

crushable.com: You have directed & produced a number of projects in the past few years, tell us a little more about how you got involved in that and perhaps how you balance that with your acting goals.

John Cabrera: I’ve actually been doing the directing/writing/producing thing since my days in Chicago. I was lucky to find a group of friends early in my artistic development who weren’t satisfied just showing up to class. We were always coming up with our own side projects. I guess we’re still doing that. If you do a little digging, you can link all of my producing endeavors of the past decade to my close family of friends. And I imagine that will always be the case with directing/writing/producing… but I guess an actor’s journey is a little different. Early in their career, which I still consider myself to be, an actor has to step outside their circle of close colleagues and audition for roles in other people’s stuff. But the hope is that you meet new creatives along the way and over time your circle widens… so I guess I’d like to get to a point where there is no balancing… where it’s all just different ways for me to tell stories with a group of artists I admire.

crushable.com: I think it’s great that you’ve been able to develop such close friendships through your work. I see that you’ve signed on to The Fifth Mafia, could you tell us a little about that film and your role?

John Cabrera: Umm, that’s a project that’s been in the works for a while. I got the role last year and I think they’ve been dealing with scheduling conflicts for the bigger name actors. To be honest, I don’t know when or if that film is expected to go… but as far as I know it’s still trying. If it does go, I play a computer geek – surprise surprise – who comes up with a scheme to steal money from a bank. As the title implies… it’s a mafia film.

crushable.com: Awesome, I hope the project makes it off its feet. Speaking of new projects, could you divulge any information about your new Warner Premiere web series, H+?

John Cabrera: Well, it’s inspired by a lot of serial genre television. Lost, Heroes… even further back The Prisoner. So by design the story has a lot of secrets that I can’t divulge. But it’s a sci-fi story that I think – hope – most audiences will relate to. Even those who aren’t particular fans of sci-fi. It explores our relationship to technology and how much of that defines us… for better or for worse. Our plan is to use the internet in a lot of creative ways outside of a traditional series of webisodes. But we’re early in the development process. We’re working with Bryan Singer and his people to bring the story to life. Looking for a director. Building a dense mythology. It’s been amazing so far.

crushable.com: It sounds like it’ll be a fantastic series, I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Aside from working on H+, What have you been doing with your time in the last couple of years?

John Cabrera: I’ve been spending a lot of time online. Ha! Not kidding. And I’ve been writing a lot. I started working on H+ during the last season of Gilmore. My writing partner and I started pitching it in the fall of 07. We found a home for it at Warner Premiere in early 08 and spent most of the year working on contracts. During that time I wrote more, auditioned for acting roles, etc. I worked a couple days on The Office… which never aired. Sad.

crushable.com: Oh no! That’s too bad.

John Cabrera: Yeah. In truth though, most of my focus these days has been on projects for the internet. In addition to H+ I have two other goodies in the works, including one with the comedy website cracked.com.

crushable.com: What fun, could you tell us any more about the cracked.com project?

John Cabrera: Yes that project is actually on a faster track than H+, but still relatively early in the dev stages. As you would imagine from a destination like cracked.com, it’s comedy. We’re talking to some familiar names about their possible involvement. Can’t really say much more than that right now, but I expect I’ll have further details in February. And my relationship with Cracked and it’s parent company Demand Media goes beyond this project so perhaps even further collaborations with them this year.

crushable.com: That’s fantastic! Rounding back to Gilmore Girls, what was your experience like working on the series? Any moments stand out?

John Cabrera: I loved it. I loved every second of it, and I replay the memories often. I probably treasure most the little ones that nobody sees. Moments with the crew. It was an awesome crew. But memories that audiences can link to episodes… hmm… okay, here’s one. So "He’s Slippin’ ‘Em Bread… Dig?"… there was a big brawl on stage, remember? Well, we had to rehearse that sucker with a stunt coordinator all week. For those who don’t know, it needed to match the fight sequence from the documentary DiG. Lots of tossing, kicking, punching.

crushable.com: Oh wow, I didn’t know that!

John Cabrera: Yeah, and finally we were ready to show what we had to Amy and Dan. But I guess we were a little nervous, excited, I don’t know… that rehearsal run ended with Sebastian racking me in the nuts, me writhing around on the floor in pain, while everyone looked on wide eyed… a lot of "Ooooooh" and "Ouch".

crushable.com: Oh no! Though I suppose that would have made for an appropriately funny Gilmore Girls scene! ;)

John Cabrera: Ha! A similar memory, but more triumphant, was when we did our final rehearsal run of the Theme From The Greatest American Hero [in "Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too"]. Everyone in the crew, production, actors, writers were all dancing in front of the stage. Some were holding lighters. Seriously! It felt like a real rock concert.

crushable.com: That was an awesome episode – such great energy with ‘Hep Alien’. How would you compare yourself to Brian Fuller?

John Cabrera: Very similar. Maybe not as innocent… and as far as I know, no deviated septum. But I was once diagnosed as hypoglycemic as a kid. I get lightheaded very easily. And I have no doubt Brian is currently reading the same comic book titles I am.

crushable.com: I can see that. How did you feel about the series finale (have to ask!)?

John Cabrera: Sad…………. yep.

crushable.com: I hear ya. And lastly, where would you like to see yourself in 5 years?

John Cabrera: As cliche an answer as this is… I’d like to be doing more of what I’m doing now, telling stories.

crushable.com: That’s fantastic to hear – living your dream. And to end off with, here are 5 questions in my "lightning round", which is basically ‘Get to know John Cabrera’ time:

Lightning Round with John Cabrera

• Worst travel experience: I once watched crying passengers exit a plane I was going to be boarding in Chicago. We were told that the plane experienced strange engine problems mid-flight but that we’d be getting a new one. Once we were in the air the captain told us all, "Surprise! It’s the same plane!"
• Favorite food: Dining, Sushi – Comfort, Mac & Cheese
• Last book you read: Apple Confidential 2.0: The History of the World’s Most Colorful Company
• Something most people would be surprised to know about you: I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. I don’t remember how to use it, though.
• Your ideal role on tv or in a movie: Well since I totally believe in type casting… computer geek… but maybe one battling cancer. I could totally nab a Golden Globe for that, right?

crushable.com: Awesome! And I’d totally pay to see that movie! ;) Thanks so much, John, for taking the time to answer all these questions, and we look forward to seeing more from your new projects!

If you want to see more from John Cabrera, check out his blog (including his mac & cheese recipe), on vimeo, or follow him on twitter.

And here’s a tribute to the Gilmore Girls fictional band Hep Alien, which features some great scenes with John Cabrera as Brian Fuller:

Images used with permission