Gary Coleman Interview

INTERVIEW WITH GARY COLEMAN FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) What is your official role with Ugo.com?

GC) I'm a columnist for them. I write "Coleman Confidential." It's a column in which I answer questions on anything from bestiality to auto repair.

DM) That's a pretty big range.

GC) Exactly! (laughs) I give my best, my honest advice on whatever somebody may ask me.

DM) What's the average work day like for this position?

GC) Well, every Friday or Saturday, I get the questions for my column. I then type them up and have them ready for Monday. They e-mail me ten questions; I sit down and answer the questions. It takes me about an hour to an hour and a half at best. In my down time, I have my model trains, my video games, my play station 2 like everyone else.

DM) I heard that you're very much into trains these days.

GC) Yeah, that's my number one hobby. I've been doing that for damn near 25 years now.

DM) What first got you interested in the trains?

GC) Part of my chromosomal make-up. I can't even tell you why. It's part of who I am as a person. It is the best hobby I think there is anywhere. You can involve yourself in electronics, computers, puzzles... there's a lot of creativity and brain working. There's a lot to model trains that people don't realize.

DM) Now career-wise, you've been pretty busy lately.

GC) This has been one of my busiest years since "Strokes" almost 20 years ago. I can't think of a bigger period. I think UGO.com and Jay Leno have been keeping me busy and visible. I don't hurt or want for visibility, but people seem to forget pretty easily.

DM) I was reading an article that looked over your career and seemed to have the opinion that no matter what you do, you'll forever be typecast.

GC) I've done over 150 different things since "Diff'rent Strokes," but that role will always be prevalent in people's minds because I haven't done anything to overshadow it yet.

DM) If you could choose your perfect acting role, what would you want to do?

GC) It's really hard to say because I don't have a choice. However, if I were to actually choose, I would choose to be a spokesman/columnist/advice guy like I'm doing on UGO.com, only on a broader, more visible level where people could taste a bit more of my personal intelligence and learn more of what type of person I am through that medium.

DM) What parts of your personality do you think people would be shocked the most to learn about?

GC) That I can see through almost any scam, especially one perpetrated by the federal government. I can see through it... they can't pull the wool over my eyes, it's absolutely freakin' impossible to pull the wool over my eyes about the government. George W. Bush bought the election--period. End of story. There is no argument. You can try to come up with any argument you can, but there is none.

DM) The public might seem more willing to accept what the government says, though...

GC) They just swallow stuff. I can't sit back and do that. I can't sit back and swallow stuff. I live in a time and place, and in a country on earth where you're not supposed to swallow it. People just gave up.

DM) Do you read a lot to keep yourself up on the news?

GC) No, no... I read Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Reader's Digest... I read some responsible journalism, and from that, I form my own opinions.
I also happen to be intelligent, and I question everything. I question authority... I question government... I question people who say they are experts, and I find the bull$#!+ factor. I go, "There it is; it's right on the surface, and I can see it." People do that with me, so I turn right around and do it to them.

DM) Do you consider yourself a well-read person?

GC) Well-read enough to be dangerous.

DM) I recently did an interview with Alfonso Ribeiro, who mentioned the idea that once he became the "Guy from Fresh Prince," the public forgot all about "Silver Spoons."

GC) That's absolutely true. That overshadows the fact that he was in "Silver Spoons."

DM) What role in your career would overshadow the character or parody of yourself?

GC) Well, I parody myself every chance I get. I try to make fun of myself and let people know that I'm a human being, and these things that have happened to me are real. I'm not just some cartoon who exists and suddenly doesn't exist.

DM) Does that ever get maddening, feeling that people don't see you for you?

GC) No, because I have more than four people on this planet in my life who see me for myself and forget that I've worked on network television. They forget I've worked in movies, and that I'm an actor. As long as I have four people who can do that, then there are others who are capable of doing that, so it doesn't bother me.

DM) Somebody once said, "I'd rather have one or two best friends than a hundred acquaintances."

GC) Yes, that is the truth--and you know what, I don't even want the casual acquaintances at this point in my life. I'd much rather spend my time with these four people.

DM) Do you think you could ever have a serious, non-parody acting role at this stage of your career?

GC) I think it's very possible--we just have to get past this '80s nostalgia crap. I still have the desire to do the job of acting. It's just a matter of whether I'll be allowed to do the job of acting that remains to be seen. There are only so many brick walls that I'm willing to beat my head on.

DM) It sounds like you have to fight just to tread water.

GC) Exactly. That's why I'm so thrilled for UGO.com and I hope there are more spokesman opportunities in the future. In the acting side, you don't know if you're getting your residuals or not. Your first check could take six weeks, but your rent doesn't stop for six weeks.

DM) What to you would be the perfect acting role right now?

GC) Well, I'm very much thirsting for a "bad guy" role--a character with some teeth. A guy who can't die. I want a guy who, when you kill him, he keeps coming back for more.

DM) Is there any character you've seen and thought that you could have done that role?

GC) The first one that comes to mind is Al Pacino's devil in "The Devil's Advocate."

DM) That was a very strong, serious role.

GC) Yeah, that was a creepy bad guy.

DM) And you would like to play that kind of role?

GC) If somebody had said "Gary Coleman or Robert DeNiro," I would have definitely said, "Take DeNiro." Now Gary Oldman, a character actor like he plays in his roles, is something I'd love to do. Somebody sinister and twisted.

DM) Do you think you could be convincing as a "bad guy?"

GC) It's all in the acting. If you can pretend to be bad and be good at it, then you're convincing. We're all play-acting. We don't take this stuff to heart. When we're done with it, we go home and go to bed. Somebody just has to decide if they're going to take a chance and twist people's sense of reality. There are people five feet tall and under out there who are just up to no good. They will hurt you and kill you, and steal from you. Somebody has to decide if they're going to allow that reality to be played.

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