Harvey Guillén Says L.A. Wildfires Left Him in a ‘Depressed Dark Place’

Harvey Guillén walked the purple carpet Monday on the Los Angeles premiere of his new horror thriller, “Companion.” The actor stated it felt good to be again at work after placing issues on maintain as a result of Los Angeles wildfires. Guillén lives in Altadena. His home wasn’t destroyed by the fires, however it was left broken.

“In these occasions of chaos and mourning and darkness, we have to create leisure as a result of we have to escape,” the “What We Do within the Shadows” star advised me.

He was capable of go to the neighborhood a few days in the past. “There was a mural on the facet of this historic constructing,” Guillén stated. “The constructing was burnt down however this signal on the wall, which was all brick, stated, ‘Altadena.’…It was so poetic. It was what town is – sure, it’s had a tough time, however it’s nonetheless standing.”

Guillén credit prayer and a neighbor’s recommendation simply earlier than evacuating for conserving his residence intact. “I went into my yard and requested the ancestors that night time, ‘Please shield my home, please shield my home,’” he recalled, including that his 80-year-old neighbor urged him to dampen the home earlier than leaving. “So I hosed down the home, I put sprinklers on the roof. I turned the sprinklers on and left them.”

His video doorbell digital camera went on at about 4 a.m. “It was raining hearth,” Guillén stated. “The palm timber that caught on hearth, they had been falling down from the sky. It was balls of fireside falling into my grass and it might dissolve mechanically as a result of it was puddles of water in all places. I don’t know why however that’s how the universe labored and saved my home.”

He admitted to feeling a kind of survivor’s guilt after seeing what number of neighbors misplaced the whole lot. “I went right into a kind of depressed darkish place as a result of I’ve by no means been on this scenario the place my neighborhood is mourning,” he stated.

Even so, he stated he’s having enjoyable selling “Companion: “It’s such a enjoyable film.”

Written and directed by Drew Hancock, the Warner Bros. movie follows a bunch of buddies whose journey to a distant cabin within the woods goes sideways when one of many company (Jack Quaid) loses management of his robotic companion (Sophie Thatcher). Rounding out the solid are Guillén and Lukas Gage as boyfriends, Megan Suri and Rupert Pal.

“We needed to do the kissing scene so many occasions,” Guillén stated of locking lips with Gage, earlier than quipping, “I’m in remedy for it.”

He added, “It’s humorous as a result of had been each in relationships on the time we had been filming it. We had been so head over heels in love that we introduced that love to those characters and it’ll dwell without end on display screen.”

“Companion” is in theaters on Friday, Jan. 31.

See extra pictures from the “Companion” premiere under.