The TV Chick

Huge has become a big summer hit for ABC Family. It centers around teenagers at Camp Victory, a weight loss camp, and their trials and tribulations. At the core of this show however, is not weight, it’s learning to be happy with yourself, and start a new lifestyle. The show has drama and romance and some hilarious moments to boot. I have really been enjoying it, and I wish there were more than just a few episodes left in the first season. I recently had the chance to chat with the absolutely lovely Harvey Guillen about his character (one of my favorites) Alistair. We talked about Alistair’s sexual preference, his relationship with his sister Chloe, and how sometimes the skinniest person in the room carries the most weight.

What originally drew you to the role of Alistair?
The first time I auditioned, I auditioned for Ian. When I read the pilot, after I knew I was going in for Ian, I fell in love with Alistair because in the original pilot he had three different scenes where [his] layers were just peeling away. And I thought “Wow, this guy has a lot going on inside,” like a lot of secrets, and there’s a lot of things he’s dealing with, as do all the other characters on the show, but there was something about Alistair that just stood out to me. And I wanted to play him, I was like “I have to play this part.” So I told my manager “I want to play Alistair,” and they were like “Well, you’re going in for Ian.” So I went in to read for Ian, but I read Ian as Alistair (laughs). I was hoping it wouldn’t backfire. Sure enough, I got a call back for the next week to read for Alistair. And I read for Alistair in front of Winnie Holzman [Creator] and she’s like this fairy godmother, she has this angelic voice and she goes “I’m sorry, but I have to give you a hug.” She gave me a hug, and I felt accomplished.

Aw, that’s so cute. So your plan worked!
Yeah, my plan worked. I don’t know if you can call it a plan. I took a risk and it paid off.

And Alistair as you mentioned has so many layers, but at the same time he’s very comfortable with who he is, and he’s very innocent. Is there a lot to him that we don’t even know yet?
Absolutely. People are always asking what’s going on with him, or why is he so weird or why is he so different. There’s [a lot of] speculation about his sexual preference, but the truth is, if the problem was his sexual preference, that would be the least of his secrets, that would be the least of his problems. He has so many secrets that people don’t know, and hopefully you get to see them all come out. There’s a big shift coming in episode 8. Alistair like you said is sweet, and he’s innocent and we all were at one point or another. We were all children, and we were all brought into this world and we were all innocent. And it’s at some point along the way that we all got jaded. But he hasn’t. And he’s holding onto that, and I think we’re going to see what people do to him. [They] say we don’t accept when you are too nice and too good and what not, and it might make you cry.

Aw. And it is sort of implied that Alistair might be gay. Will we see this addressed in the upcoming episodes?
Absolutely. The next episode is when we see that question asked and answered and shown.

Will we see maybe a crush?
You will definitely be seeing a crush, and you will especially be seeing something done to him by another camper unexpectedly.

Interesting. How will his relationship with his sister Chloe continue to develop as the season goes on?
The thing with Chloe, is not only are they blood related, but they are twins. And having that connection hidden away from you is really heartbreaking. I’ve been hanging out with Ashley Holliday a lot, who plays Chloe, and it’s so hard because I built that rapport with her off the set and when we’re on set, I long for it and I want it. You want to be next to your friend. It was like when you were in school, and you had a best friend and you wanted to have all your classes together, and you wanted to spend lunch together, and you had to spend after school together. It’s that instant rapport that you have with someone that I build with Ashley. So when we’re on set, and we can’t be next to each other, it kills me. Because not only are you my twin, [but] you’re not acknowledging me. It breaks my heart when I read the episodes every time, to have to come and do that to Alistair. But everyone has their reasons, and she has her reasons. They may not be justified, or maybe they are, but that’s her idea and her understanding of it.

 That makes sense.
There’s a moment in episode 8 where you actually see the human side to Chloe, and her feelings may change a little bit. Maybe they change too late for Chloe and too late for Alistair, so the clock’s ticking and things are going to happen and maybe someone’s not going to be able to salvage what they had before.

Interesting. And what about his new found friendship with Trent?
Yeah, the new friendship with Trent is the longing — Trent represents the jock, the popular guy, the good looking guy that Alistair’s not associated with. And he accepted him after Spirit Quest, he acknowledges him as a human being basically. And that’s a huge thing for him, because he’s being accepted for who he is. He didn’t conform to anybody’s cookie cutter mold, he’s actually being accepted not only as himself, but even after he chose to be Athena for Spirit Quest — a girl’s name — to be accepted at that level was a huge thing for him because people don’t accept him as he is period, already. And for him to take that and have the guts to choose a girl’s name and still be accepted by Trent — At first it wasn’t such smooth sailing because he wasn’t happy about sharing a tent with me. But now after he thought he was on shrooms — Alistair looked out for his well being, he placed the fake mushroom on the floor. So you have that idea and the illusion — It’s like those friends who have a drink and they’re like “I’m sooo wasted!”

(laughs) Yeah and it’s so not the case.
Yeah, it’s like I gave you Martinelli’s apple cider and you thought you were drinking champagne. It’s all in the head. And I think it’s so cool that it’s all mental. All of people’s perception of others and themselves, it’s all in their head and when you take down those barriers, those nets, then the truth comes out. And he totally accepted him for him and accepted him for the choices he was making, which is a huge breakthrough for Alistair and he feels really connected to Trent right now.

Absolutely. I hope to see more of that. And are you anything like Alistair?
We are similar in a lot of ways, and we are different in a lot of ways. Alistair marches to the beat of his own drum, and I think I can say that as well for myself. But he does let people step over him, and not acknowledge him or acknowledge his response to something. From earlier in the season, you saw how Trent wouldn’t even give him the time of day when he was trying to join his group in the talent show episode. That’s not like me. If I have something to say, I speak up. I totally speak my mind. I just say what’s on my mind, and I don’t hold back. I think Alistair sometimes holds back, because he doesn’t want to step on people’s toes. I’d prefer to step on other people’s toes and apologize later, than hesitate and elongate what’s inevitable.

Yeah, I feel like for me personally, sometimes it can go either way.
Yeah, totally. It was hard for me because I’m not like him in that sense, and I read the scripts and when someone does something mean to him or something bad, it just breaks your heart. But it’s so important to have this character on TV because he’s not like anything ever put on TV. There’s never been a character played like Alistair.

Absolutely. Is there a character that you would relate to the most — aside from Alistair?
I would probably relate more to Ian. Just because I’m a musician. I sing, I do musical theater. I can [also] relate to Poppy’s personality. Because Poppy [acts] – kind of like how I do when I’m with my friends — I’m just like “Oh let’s go do this.” I’m very outgoing. “Let’s go to the mountains, let’s just pick up and go.” And Poppy’s very much like that. And Zoe Jarman, who plays Poppy, has become a really close friend of mine, and she confessed to me — I actually asked her the same question. I asked her who do you relate to on the show, or who’s your favorite character on the show. And she said Alistair; she said she has a comedy crush on Harvey Guillen. She has a crush on me, and I have a crush on her, so it’s a mutual comedy crush that we have on each other.

Aw, that’s nice. And yourself included, there’s a ton of musical talent on the show. Do you think we might see Alistair sing or a musical episode in the future?
Absolutely. We’re so lucky that people are comparing the show to Glee and Ugly Betty. But it’s its own show, so it can’t really be compared to anything on TV. We lucked out, because our whole cast is musical. Hayley Hasselhoff has a girl group with her sister. Obviously Nikki Blonsky, we have musical theater with Ari [Stidham, who plays Ian], Stefan [Van Ray, who plays Trent] does musical theater, Raven [Goodwin, who plays Becca] loves to sing and dance, I’m musical theater, so we really lucked out where the whole cast is trained or has some experience with musical theater or some kind of music background. So Winnie Holzman has already told us, she goes “I know what’s coming. We’ll see.” So we’re all keeping our fingers crossed, and we can’t wait to see when we have a musical theater episode.

I feel like it would fit really well with the show — like a camp talent show episode.
It would. It totally would. You should talk to Winnie Holzman (laughs).

(laughs) I’ll tell her Harvey told me to talk to her. And obviously Huge is a show with a bit of a controversial but such a groundbreaking premise. Why do you think it’s so important for a show to address this topic?
I think everyone can relate to it. You have a cast that has never been done before. It’s a full cast of plus size actors. It’s about going to weight loss camp, but besides that, everyone can relate to the show because it’s not about teenagers losing weight. It’s about everybody’s burdens. We all carry extra weight every day of our lives. You carry the burden of work at your job, you carry the weight of caring for your family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you carry the weight of caring for an elderly parent — everyone has extra weight that they carry every day. That’s what these characters are. They’re dealing with the excess baggage and the weight — whether it be physical weight or emotional weight, they’re all dealing with extra weight that they carry. That’s the bottom line. Everyone can relate to that. Sometimes the thinnest person in the room is the heaviest.

I never thought of it that way. I like that analogy quite a bit. And what kind of feedback have you gotten about the show?
Actually, I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback. There’s always going to be people who say “Well, I think they’re promoting obesity.” We’re not promoting obesity, it’s all about being happy with who you are. If you’re happy and healthy at the size that you are, then you’ve accomplished your goal because you’re happy and you’re going to be happy in the lifestyle that you live. But if you’re not happy, we live in a country where he have choices, we have options, and we have a choice to make a change. That’s what’s so great. But I’ve gotten some great feedback. This could have easily gone a different direction with the idea and the premise for the show if it wasn’t for such a strong team of writers and producers behind us. It’s not making fun of this. It’s very touching and very loving. It’s actually very well done, so I think what a perfect team to have behind us to do this project than Winnie Holzman and Kim Rosenfeld…every single person down to the last person on the roll sheet is behind this project one hundred percent and it’s just so amazing to go to work every day. Our main point is just be happy with who you are. That’s our goal, and we’re trying get the message across that we all deal with extra weight. And once you deal with it and find out who you are and the life you’re meant to lead, then you’ll be happy, and you’ll do it regardless.

Definitely. And what challenges you the most about the role?
What challenges me most is putting myself in those shoes. I was talking to Raven Goodwin, and she was saying “It’s so funny, when you walk on set, you become Alistair. And as soon as you step off, you’re like Harvey again.” I think what’s hard for me is to become Alistair and not to linger in him too long. It’s a challenge for me, because I’m usually a very nice person and upfront, and I never get mistreated because of it. So I’m very nice and people respond to that very positively. But with Alistair, when he’s so nice and polite, he gets overlooked and trampled on, especially with his age group. Because being polite and nice and sweet when you’re a teenager doesn’t count. People want to be cool and popular. But it’s like “I want to be friends, and I can make us a picnic,” and they’re like “Who cares about that?” They want to go to Forever 21 or get the latest camera, which is what my sister represents. Chloe represents all the materialistic at that age group. And when we’re adults too, we want materialistic things and we think that we’re happy if we have a boyfriend and the perfect hair and your nails done. And that’s what she represents. And I represent the opposite. I’m happy with the minimal, which is the free things in life: what surrounds you, the people and relationships.

And what have you noticed are the big differences between musical theater and television? Do you have a preference?
I don’t. When we go on hiatus, I get to do both. I get to do an outside project — a musical and be in films. The difference is that theater is always so broad because it has to reach the last audience member in the back row of a 2,000 seat house. You’re movements and facial expressions are so broad that it’s almost too much. And you can’t do that for TV and film. You have to bring it down. Sometimes I’ll feel like I’m doing a scene and I know it’s too much. It’s crazy, it’s just because I know that I’m going to have to take it down. Especially when you pick it up from that level and bring it down, it’s the best. It really just shows that it’s natural.

One of the most subtle scenes was when you picked up the magazine, started reading and then signed the body pledge. There was no dialogue, and it was definitely drawn back, as you said. I really enjoyed that moment, but do you have a favorite moment from filming the show so far?
I love that scene, too. Because we saw Chloe and Amber sign that treaty and I think that’s what he’s been looking for. He’s been looking for a moment to really just accept what he’s already been thinking. Camp was a getaway this summer for him. Chloe got to go last summer, and she came back and she’s Miss Popular. That was a big switch, maybe not in the best way, because we saw a flashback to when she and Becca were friends and she seemed to be nice. Something happened where she became thinner and popular. Maybe losing the weight wasn’t the best answer to her [problems], but she took that and ran with it. And for Alistair, I feel like the summer is going to be the summer of discovering himself. And once he finds that treaty, he acknowledges that he knows what he wants to pursue, and he just goes full throttle after this. My favorite episode would have to be episode 8, our birthday episode. [Ed Note: Episode 8 airs tonight] That was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. People forget his birthday but they remember Chloe’s. That’s just one thing. And what happens to him later that day on his birthday is a moment that’s captured, that literally, if you go back to your life, it’s one of those moments where you’re like “Yup, that’s where I changed, where everything changed for me.” This is that episode for him, and I love it. Because after this, it’s going to be amazing.

I really look forward to that. I got a lot of questions from Twitter, and one of them was who inspires you and who are your influences?
I would say people who inspire me – I’m really big on people who do things unselfishly. Tomorrow, I’m helping out with Habitat For Humanity. And the people who devote their whole lives to a non-profit organization always blows my mind. It’s so amazing that [they] made a career out of helping others, and [they're] not in for money because obviously there isn’t, [they're] in it because of other people. So people like that inspire me every day. Actors who are inspire me would probably be Kate Winslet, just because I love Kate Winslet. I’d marry her if she wasn’t already dating someone.

(laughs) Well, I’ll put the word out.
Yes, put the word out that I would marry Kate Winslet. It’s because she always takes projects that she’s devoted to and wants to do. There’s certain people who probably won’t work with her in Hollywood, because she won’t lose five pounds. If she wants the part, or if she thinks the role calls for it, she will lose the weight. It’s up to her. I feel the same way. Whatever it takes, I’ll do. I was worried because Alistair was supposed to be the heaviest on the show. And I thought to myself, I’m already plus sized. I was thinking maybe I should gain ten pounds. But they were like “Well, we can do that with clothing.” So I made the choice not to, and they did it with clothing. I chose not to further myself into a bigger size.

You gave quite a nice teaser, but can you tell us a little bit more of what’s coming up for Alistair, perhaps post episode 8?
You get to meet our parents. At this point in the show, it’s half way through camp. So episode 9 and 10 is the half point of camp. Our parents come, and you’ll be surprised to know who Chloe and Alistair’s parents are. You also get to meet all the other campers’ parents. And you try to put things together, because sometimes people say “If you’re overweight, it’s because you over eat or you’re eating junk or you’re not exercising enough,” but sometimes it’s emotional eating. These parents send their kids to this camp and it’s like “Why can’t you lose weight? You should go to camp to lose weight,” but at the end of the day, when they go home, they gain the weight because of what they’re around, the relationships at home. It comes down to stuff like that. And you’ll find out a lot about the characters. You’ll be like “Ohhhh I get. I see why you’re — ohhh.” You’ll put everything together, and they’ll definitely leave you wanting more for the following episodes.

Well I look forward to it. And do you have any other projects lined up for the hiatus?
As of now, I’m looking into doing a couple musicals. I’m going to be shooting a commercial later this month for sure. I also want to do some film. We have a pretty big break, so for now, I’m just looking at different projects and reading for different stuff.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk. I really look forward to the rest of the season.
Tell everyone thank you for sending in those questions!

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm to ABC Family for the big birthday episode of Huge!

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