It’s hard to imagine that “Criminal Minds” star Matthew Gray Gubler has time for even a nap.
For years, Gubler has thrived on juggling simultaneous projects like modeling, acting, directing, blogging, drawing and painting.
“I have this weird thing — I literally feel physically ill if I’m not making something,” he joked during a phone interview last week from LA, where he was wrapping up Wednesday’s episode, which he’s directing. “It might surprise people to know that I do sleep,” he says.
Since 2005, the lanky Gubler has played brainy Dr. Spencer Reid, a socially awkward FBI special agent who works as a profiler in the bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. The ensemble cast also includes Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, A.J. Cook, Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness and Jeanne Tripplehorn.
Wednesday’s eerie episode, airing at 9 p.m., marks the seventh time the 34-year-old Las Vegas native has directed the series.
This week’s BAU case examines a family feud tied to a string of deaths in a backwoods West Virginia community. “It’s part monster movie, part bizarre family drama,” he says. “It’s got a lot of strange things in it that speak to me in every way.”
When directing, Gubler says he veers toward the “slightly preposterous.” While he won’t reveal much about his latest effort, he does dangle one tidbit.
“There may or may not be a Bigfoot-type monster or creature living in the woods who there’s been a lot of legends about and who is coming back to do some pretty terrible things to some people that did some things,” he says, adding with a laugh, “That’s the worst tag line ever!”
Directing has been Gubler’s labor of love since he was a student at New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. But before graduating in 2002, the 6-foot-2, shaggy-haired Gubler was already multi-tasking: He stumbled into modeling for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Tommy Hilfiger after a scout spotted him on the street.
While in school Gubler also interned for filmmaker Wes Anderson, which Gubler says “felt like winning the lottery.” Then Anderson gave Gubler his first acting role as, appropriately enough, a young intern for a fictional filmmaker in the 2004 movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”
“I really owe him a great deal of gratitude for sort of officially turning me into an actor,” says Gubler.
That’s also where Gubler picked up another talent: painting and drawing. He doodled in between scenes and now draws “incessantly,” creating caricatures of himself and “Criminal Minds” cast and crew.
However, his self-taught abstract style isn’t necessarily for everyone.
“I’ve always thought my [technique] was really beautiful, and recently someone was telling me how scary or gross my painting is,” he says, laughing. “And it kind of hurts my feelings a little bit because I only draw people I find really beautiful or interesting. To me it looks identical to them.”
He’s also not averse to self-mockery. Several years ago he did a series of faux documentaries on the “Criminal Minds” set in which he played a “stereotypically vain, crazy actor” version of himself.
But not everyone got the joke.
“My mom was really disturbed because some people at the very beginning — and probably to this day — believed they were true,” he says. “And I kind of don’t take myself too seriously — so any chance to confuse people!”
Still, he is amused when strangers stop him on the street and expect him to be just like his Dr. Reid character.
“That’s always funny. They’ll ask me for help with smart stuff, like math questions. They really don’t understand that I could not be less like him,” he says. “Math and science were never really my forte.”
He is, however, skilled in social media. His down-time pursuits include blogging at matthewgraygubler.com, where he posts some of his artwork. He’s also active on Twitter (@Gublernation), Instagram (Gublergram), Facebook, Tumblr and YouTube (where his mockumentary episodes live on).
Even with all that, he is concerned about the jarring transition that happens when the directing ends and he has one less thing on his plate.
“All of a sudden the experience is over and you just go back to acting,” the affable Gubler says. “I feel like a werewolf and the full moon has gone away and I’m just, like, a normal dude in a suit.”