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AE: How would you describe your character in A Family Affair? In what ways are you similar or dissimilar to Reggie?
MG: I describe Reggie as a horrible/fabulous narcissist. She is dreadful in her self-involvement and lack of consideration of other people but she is so incredibly charming and winning that you can’t help but be drawn to her. Narcissists don’t seem awful, they are captivating and that is why we all seem to have several of them in our pasts. I’ve always been kind of a pleaser, trying to keep everyone happy…I aspire to be more like reggie!

AE: What drew you to this film, and this role?
MG: I was drawn to the role which is for me a departure from the kind of woman next door roles they always seem to cast me as in television. I liked the point of view of the film as well as the humor. It’s not a HEAVY LESBIAN FILM…you know?

AE: Director/co-star Helen Lesnick mentioned that the audience reaction to the film at screenings has been very positive; how have viewers responded to your character in particular?
MG: Everyone so far LOVES Reggie which makes me feel that I did my job in bringing her to life. It is very gratifying because I had to walk that line so that people wouldn’t hate her.

AE: Can you tell us more about Fly Cherry and Give or Take an Inch?
MG: Fly Cherry is about a little girl in a small town in Oklahoma who doesn’t fit in with her family or her social culture or anything….she’s really creative and imaginative and lives in a different place, mentally and emotionally. She connects very briefly with an older woman, (Shirley Knight! What an actress!) who was once a big band singer and is also a social outcast. It is a small moment in which they affirm that it is good to be different, to dream bigger. It’s sweet. Give or Take is about a family of siblings struggling with a sister’s decision to have a sex change operation.. It is funny and sad and poignant…it is what all families are.

AE: As a woman with Mexican-Okie roots, have you found either your gender or your ethnicity to be a challenge in getting roles in film and television?
MG: In the tv and film industry being half Mexican has not been the usual problem for me because I have an American last name and I am fair and in this business they have a very narrow and stereotypical idea of what Latinos look like and I do not fit it. I have the opposite problem, even though I am totally bilingual and bicultural they cannot imagine that I am truly Latina and will cast any woman with dark hair and eyes and olive skin before they’d cast me in a Latina role! Being a woman is always difficult because women’s roles are generally so one dimensional.

AE: Any roles in the past that are particularly memorable? Any you wish you had or hadn’t taken?
MG: I kind of block them out after I do them. I don’t know, I think I do not really have an actor’s psyche, I like the moments that we’re actually doing it, working with another actor or shooting it but once it’s done, it’s totally done for me, I am someplace else.

AE: What projects are you currently working on?
MG: I just finished doing a role in a CBS pilot with Matthew Modine who is not only a fabulous actor but one of the most lovely people in this business, just a pleasure in every way. I am finishing a feature script and preparing to direct a short as part of an anthology project. And I am preparing to go into the studio to record my next cd. And I am rerbuilding my house…

You’ve acted in numerous films and television series, written a short film (Fly Cherry), started your own production company, and written and recorded a bilingual CD with your Latin-folk band. How do you balance of all these things, and do you envision ever devoting yourself entirely to music in the future?
MG: I am a bit too busy at the moment, although all of it is good….but my head is too full of stuff and I have trouble sleeping…so I need to slow down and get some more help in terms of handling all of it, like a good assistant and a new music manager…not like Prozac!

I would love to devote more of my time and energy to music and I plan to in the coming year…to be honest, I find writing, both music and screenplays and stories much more fulfilling and real to me that being an actress. I love working on a set, I love pretending to be other people and inhabiting their lives and fears and idiosyncracies….I’ve done it for so long….but I am just more wired up artistically as a writer and a musician. That is a more authentic place for me, more of where I live.

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