Criminal Minds: Thomas Gibson, Aaron Hotchner on Criminal Minds, gave this interview in 2000 while starring on 'Dharma and Greg'. Thanks to Stacy for finding it.
Article from "In Style" Sep 2000:
"My dad's a retired lawyer, my brother's a lawyer, and so are my cousins and an uncle," says Thomas Gibson. "Me, I'm in TV law." By which the 38-year-old actor means his role as Greg, the uptight attorney husband to carefree Dharma, in the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg. But in his three new projects, the South Carolina native indulges in some decidedly un-Greg-like behavior. He plays a surfing legend in the late-summer spoof Psycho Beach Party, which he calls Gidget meets Psycho; a cynical modeling agent in the drama Stardom, which opens the Toronto International Film Festival in September; and a mythical Chinese hero who is "a little bit Indiana Jones, a little bit Luke Skywalker" in the upcoming NBC miniseries The Monkey King. Offscreen, he's as happily married as Greg--but without the yin-yang, opposites-tract dynamic.
Describing his wife of seven years, Cristina he says, "We're both Cancers, left-handed, Catholic, the youngest sibling, and we both like to stay home." These days, they have good reason for that--their 1-year-old son, James.
Are you a hands-on dad?
Cristina's been protecting my sleep because I've been working almost nonstop. But on weeks I have off, I do change my share of poopy diapers.
Do you enjoy being a father?
It's the best thing in the world. James is comfortable in his own skin--and I'm trying to emulate him. He's my fashion icon. He's so unselfconscious running around in his diaper; it's beautiful. I think we should bring back the diaper look for men.
What's your idea of comfort?
I am on a never ending quest for the perfect khakis. I had a pair that I wore for three years until they literally fell apart. I have a pair of Ermenegildo Zegna khakis that are almost broken in enough to be worthy successors.
Did growing up in Charleston influence your style?
It's really hot there from March to November, so people wear seersucker suits. I feel like if I don't have one, something in my life isn't complete, even though now I don't wear it often. I did wear one to my 10-year high school reunion. My 20th is this summer and I have no idea what to wear. Maybe the uniform I wore in high school: green-and-white polyester plaid pants, a white shirt and a green-and-white striped tie.
What were you like back then?
I was the freshman class president. [But] I had been acting since I was 10, so I had a reputation for being the actor boy, which didn't make you the most popular guy in the world.
What's the weirdest thing you've worn?
Platform shoes that I wore to summer camp dances. I was 10, and I was stylin'.
Were you a good dancer?
What I lacked in finesse, I made up for in enthusiasm.
What's the oldest thing in your closet?
A pair of those shoes every little old man on the Lower East Side of New York wears in summer. I think they were $19. They're black and they've got holes in front so air can circulate. I think they're really cool.
Boxers or briefs?
This is where Greg and I overlap--Brooks Brothers boxers. Because they're serious. Boxers that are cut short, that's bogus underwear.
If you could have dinner with anybody, who would it be?
Thoreau, who spent all that time outside and wrote about it. Also, Steven Pinker. He's an amazing cognitive psychologist who wrote How the Mind Works, and he teaches at MIT.
Name one thing that's changed in your life since Dharma.
OK, I'll confess: I don't iron shirts anymore. I knew I had arrived when I got to send shirts out at will.
Do you ever act more like Dharma than Greg?
I did jump out of an airplane nine years ago. But I don't need to do it again. Being spontaneous is great. But it's all relative. Sometimes that just means ordering Chinese instead of Thai food.
Do you ever lose control?
I don't get mad easily. If I do, I'll go and hit three buckets of golf balls to work out the tension. I think it's better to channel that energy in a constructive way.
Are you organized?
Greg might be rubbing off on me; when I go to the mall, I find myself gravitating toward Hold Everything. I have this illusion that my life is ordered when my stuff is. Then again, why
should we spend our limited time on the planet looking at things to hold our socks ?
